.*' 






O » ' ^ 



M ^ *•., 



.<^"^ 



"^^ 



y 



■^o^ 



^^. 



» • S t * 



<^r 



-sV 













.3'V 




O. 



V 



o 







o l///^f'\\^ " 
















r^ ^'% ' 
















.^'"•>, 










7/^ 




A>s!^.v 



:f^\r^ 






.rOfl^' 



J>^ 






C!5^ 



^'^ ^ r! :i:^re'^^ 






?5\ < 









,0' 



<s=u; 






& 












coSO 



t>- 



r 



^ 



? 







^ 









I'i 



Q^ 






hXr/''^ 







I'lIE FIRST MAP OF FONG ISLAND. 
IVcsented to the States-Ceneral by Adrian Ri.ock, January iS, i6i6. 



EARLY LONG ISLAND 



A COLONIAL STUDY 



BY 



MARTHA BOCKEE FLINT 




G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 

NEW YORK LONDON 

27 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET 24 BEDFORD STREET, STRAND 

®^e Juiifhtrbockn %xt%% 
1896 



<^^\ 



W^ 



n^ 




Copyright, 1896 

BY 

MARTHA BOCK^E FLINT 
Entered at Stationers' Hall, London 



XCbe ftniciierbochet pttae, Dew K^ocbelle, Vl. 



To 
EMMA BUCKNER, OF KENTUCKY, 

THE author's best INSPIRATION, 
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED. 



NOTE. 



The writer has not encumbered the narrative 
with constant mention of authorities, or with the 
acknowledgment of her great debt to earlier writers. 
The books chiefly consulted are named in an 
appendix. As far as possible facts have been taken 
from original sources. All others have been care- 
fully verified. 

M. B. F. 

Amenia, 
Dutchess County, New York, 

September, iSgj. 



To THE Reader: 

" Here thou mayest in two or three hours travaile 
over a few leaves and see and know what cost him 
that writ it, yeares and travaile over sea and land 
before he knew it." 

William Wood 
Nnv-England's Prospect (1634). 



CONTENTS. 



Early Explorers and Claimants 

II. 
The Land 

III. 
The Indians on Long Island . 

IV. 
A Study of Names 



PAGE 

I 



i8 



45 



. 60 



V. 



The Five Dutch Towns 



VI. 



Lady Moody's Plantation 



VII. 
The North Riding of Yorkshire 

VIII, 
The Stamford Migration . 



vu 



• • 



76 



104 



1x6 



124 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

IX. 



PAGE 



Other Queens County Towns . . . 162 

X. 

Lion Gardiner 216 

XI. 

The Connecticut Towns . . . . . 224 

XII. 
Dutch and English Claims to Long Island. 261 

XIII. 
The English Conquest 293 

XIV. 
Nassau in the Eighteenth Century . . 326 

XV. 

Protests against Rebellion ; the Opening 

War 339 

XVI. 

The Battle of Brooklyn 385 

XVII. 

Progress of the War 411 

XVIII. 

Negotiations for Peace 456 

XIX. 

The Loyalists 473 

XX. 

Expatriation : A New Home .... 488 



CONTENTS. 



IX 



APPENDIX. 



I. 

The Hempstead Resolutions 

II. 

Articles of Association . 

III. 
Declaration of the Howes 

IV. 

The Queens County Addressers 

V. 

The Kings County Addressers 

VI. 
List of Books Consulted . 



PAGE 

499 



502 



505 



507 



525 



530 




Vlll CONTENTS. 

IX. 

PAGE 

Other Queens County Towns . . .162 

X. 

Lion Gardiner 216 

XI. 

The Connecticut Towns . . . . . 224 

XII. 
Dutch and English Claims to Long Island. 261 

XIII. 
The English Conquest 293 

XIV. 

Nassau in the Eighteenth Century . . 326 

XV. 

Protests against Rebellion ; the Opening 

War 339 

XVI. 
The Battle of Brooklyn 385 

XVII. 

Progress of the War 411 

XVIII. 
Negotiations for Peace 456 

XIX. 
The Loyalists 473 

XX. 
Expatriation : A New Home .... 488 



• CONTENTS. 



IX 



APPENDIX. 



I. 



The Hempstead Resolutions 



PAGE 

499 



II. 

Articles of Association . 

III. 
Declaration of the Howes 

IV. 

The Queens County Addressers 



502 



505 



507 



The Kings County Addressers 



VI. 

List of Books Consulted , 



525 



• 530 



EARLY LONG ISLAND. 



EARLY EXPLORERS AND CLAIMANTS. 

WITHIN the cabin of his storm-worn ship, an- 
chored off the old seaport town of Dieppe, 
a returned navigator, in the midsummer of 
1524,* addressed to the most picturesqjje of French 
kings, a " Relation " in which is the first authentic 
mention in history of Long Island." 

Recent criticism has sought to doubt the authen- 
ticity of this letter of Verrazano, sent to the Court at 
Avignon, and preserved to us in a contemporary 
copy. But while its genuineness has been well 
established, it is also, whether in the stately Italian 
of its writer, or in the quaint translation of Hakluyt, 



' July 8th. 

' The Saga Torfinn tells us that the summer of 1003 was spent 
by Thorwald in exploration southward from Leifs Budir (booths), 
and that he found a great island lying west and east, which could be 
no other than Long Island. — Payne's History of America, p. 82. 

I 



2 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

a curious document full of convincing vitality and 
rare intelligence. 

As the great Florentine, sailing for the " discove- 
rie of Cathay," directed his course northward from 
that land of " Bayes and Palmes " which was the 
southern limit of his voyage, it is not hard to fol- 
low his track, until passing Sandy Hook,' La Daii- 
pJiine dropped anchor near the Narrows. A boat 
was then sent within to ".a most beautiful lake,^ a 
pleasant place situate among certain little steepe 
hills,' from amidst which there ran down to the sea 
an exceeding great stream." * There their boat was 
the lodestone which drew from every lurking-place 
along the shores of the bay, thirty light canoes filled 
with " innumerable people of the country," who, 
with the eager curiosity of the savage man, were 
" continually passing from shore to shore." The 
narrative goes on : 

" Forced to leave this land for our great discon- 
tentment, for the great commoditie and pleasant- 
nesse thereof, which we suppose is not without some 
riches — for all the hills show mineral matter therein 

' Verrazano named it Capo da Santa Maria. It is so marked on 
Maijolla's map, Venice, 1527, where the bay is called Angouleme, a 
name probably given by Verrazano in honour of Francis. In Ri- 
biero's chart of 1529 it is the " B. de S. Xpoal," the Upper Bay, B. 
de San Antonio, and the region about Sandy Hook, Cabo de Arenas, 
is called " Tierra de Estevan Gomez" in recognition of the Portu- 
guese sailor's landfall in 1525. Alonzo Chauves, 1536, calls Sandy 
Hook C. Santiago. On the copper globe of Ulpius, 1542 (New York 
Historical Society), the bay is called the Gulf of St. Germaine. 

2 " Un bellissimo lago." 

' " Infra piccoli colli eminente." 

* " Una grandissima riviera." 



FRENCH INDIFFERENCE 3 

— we weighed anker and sailed toward the East- 
ward, for so the coast trended, and so alwaies for 
fifty leagues being in sight thereof." 

Passing Long Island, the Manisees ' was next dis- 
covered, which Verrazano named Luisa,* for his 
" Majesty's illustrious mother," the meddlesome 
Duchess of Savoy. Thence they sailed into Nar- 
ragansett Bay, and there is no further mention of 
Long Island. 

Nearly a century passed, and the visit of the 
strange winged canoe, from whose mast fluttered 
the ensign emblazoned with the lilies the Angel 
brought to Clovis, had become a mere tradition 
to the awed and admiring Indians. Francis, de- 
feated in Italy, fretting in a Spanish prison, and 
harassed at home by unceasing cabals, had little 
leisure to continue the discoveries of Verrazano, or 
to secure his title to the lands to which he thus laid 
claim. Nor, through the succeeding reigns of the 
House of Valois-Orleans, was there time for aught 
but religious persecution, political strife, and Court 
intrigues. Meanwhile, there was growing up a new 
power — the only heroic race ever developed in a flat 
country. The young Dutch Republic, thoroughly 
on its feet, was not lacking in the adventurous spirit 
of the age, nor slow to seek for itself the golden 

' Block Island, Adrian's P^ylandt on the early Dutch maps ; later, 
New Shoreham, " Shor'um," so named in the charter from the 
Rhode Island Association in 1672. 

'^ It so appears on some of the earliest maps, notably that of the 
explorer's brother, Ilieronimo da Verrazano, published in 1529. The 
constant quarrels between mother and son, probably explain the later 
and more frequent use of Claudia, the name of P'rancis's wife. 



4 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

route to the Indies, and to extend its narrow, sea- 
won domain by acquisitions in a new world. 

So it came to pass, that in 1609, the brilliant sun of 
a September day shone upon the historic Halve- 
Maeji ^ passing Sandy Hook to the northward. Just 
five months before, the glad bells of Antwerp silent 
through many a year of gloom, rang out the truce 
by which, in the old Town Hall, Philip virtually 
acknowledged the independence of the United Neth- 
erlands. Consequent thereon, in July, 1609, Sieur 
de Schoonwalle was received in England as the am- 
bassador of " a free state." The Dutch were recog- 
nised as an independent people at the time of 
Hudson's voyage, and hence their right by his dis- 
covery to the territory known as New Netherland. 

Hudson at once noted, as possible openings to 
the long-sought western passage, the three " great 
rivers " entering the Lower Bay, afterward put 
down on De Laet's map of 1630. Attempting to 
enter the " Northermost," which was the Rockaway 
inlet to Jamaica Bay, he was deterred by the bar 
and the shallow water, and turned toward the Nar- 
rows. In the Log-Book written by his mate, Robert 
Juett, of Lime House, is this entry for Septem- 
ber 3d : 

" So wee weighed anchor and went in and rode in 
five fathoms oze ground, and saw many Salmons ' 
and Mullets and Rayes very great. The Height is 
40 degrees and 30 minutes." 

' The Halve-Maen was a Vlie boat of forty lasts burden. The 
Dutch last equals two tons, or eighty English bushels. 

' Dr, Samuel Latham Mitchell denies the possibility of salmon there. 



HUDSON'S LANDFALL. 5 

Passing up the Bay, Hudson believed the great 
estuary to be the wished-for strait leading to the 
Pacific. He was soon too absorbed in exploration 
of the noble river which bears his name, and in 
equivocal negotiations with the Indians of Manhat- 
tan, to concern himself with the eastern shore of the 
Bay. But in his journal, which we know only aS 
quoted by De Laet, he says: "Is het schoonste Landt 
om te bouwen als ick oijt mijn leven metvoeten be- 
trat." ' Some of his men, landing near Gravesend 
on September 4th, came back to the ship charmed 
with their glimpse of the new country. They de- 
scribe it as " full of great tall oaks, and the land as 
pleasant to see, with grass and flowers as ever they 
had seen, and very sweet smelles came from them." 

Returning from the ascent of the river, the Halve- 
Maen weighed anchor off Sandy Hook October 4th, 
and sailed to the eastward. Early in November, 
Hudson reached the English port of Dartmouth, 
and sent an account of his voyage to the Dutch 
East India Company, in whose employ he had sailed. 
He purposed spending the winter in the harbour, 
refitting his yacht for yet another voyage in search 
of a north-western passage. But, before the spring 
breezes swelled the new sails of the Halve-Maen, a 
peremptory order from King James forbade his re- 
turn to Holland, or again entering the service of any 
foreign nation. Hudson never again saw the mer- 
chants of Amsterdam, whose agent he was.* But 

' " It is the finest land for cultivation that ever in my life I have 
trod." 

* Hudson sailed from London to his lonely death, in the Discovery, 
March 10, 1610. 



6 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

he had opened the way to the occupation of the 
countrv'. The enterprising States-General at once 
asserted their right to these western wilds, and very 
soon other adventurers were sent to secure the 
valuable trade in furs, and to establish posts in the 
interests of Dutch commerce. 

The Halve-Maen, after a detention of eight months 
in England, did not reach Amsterdam until July, 1610. 
She was at once sent with part of the old crew to 
the River of Mountains, as the Hudson had been 
called, to trade for furs. The next year, 161 1, Hen- 
drick Christiaenzen, of Clief, returning from the 
West Indies, passed near the mouth of the Mauri- 
tius, as the Dutch had then named the new river.' 
Fearing to risk his valuable cargo, he did not enter 
the Upper Bay, but as soon as he reached Holland 
he chartered a ship, in partnership with Adrian 
Block, and made a voyage thither. With great 
store of furs, they took back to Europe with them 
two young Indians, Valentine and Orson, who 
greatly stimulated the curiosity in the new world. 

Amsterdam was already the " Tyre of the seven- 
teenth century " ; a new impulse was given to 
navigation, and the current of Dutch enterprise 
turned westward. Hans Hongers, a director of the 
East India Company, with Paulus Pelgram and 
Lambert van Tweenhuysen, merchants of Hoorn, 
equipped the Fortune and the Tiger, under Chris- 

' Our Hudson bore many names. First spoken of as the Rio de 
San Antonio, the saintly Pere Joques writes of it : " L'entree de la 
riviere que quelques uns appelle la R. Nassau ou la grande Riviere 
du Nord, quelques cartes ce me sembles que j'ay vu nouvellmt Riviere 
Maurice." — Novum Belgium, (16^3-4). 



'7' ONHUST. 7 

tiaensen and Block, and in 1612 sent them again to 
Manhattan. In 1613, still other vessels were sent, 
and the Fortune made its second voyage under the 
schipper Cornells Jacobsen Mey. 

The misadventure of Adrian Block is well known. 
The loss of his ship and of its rich freight took place 
just as they were about to start on their homeward 
voyage. In that long winter of 1613-14, the little 
crew of the ill-fated Tiger endured as best they 
might the rigour of a climate of unwonted severity. 
Near the southern point of the Island of Manhattan 
thev built four small huts,' while in a sheltered cove 
hard by, went slowly on the first rude ship-building' 
of the future seaport. One cannot believe that 
meanwhile their attention had not been turned to 
the adjacent Matowacks, 'T Lange Eylandt of the 
soon to be settled Nieuw Nederlandt. 

In theearly days of April, 16 14, the newly launched 
Onriist — prophetic name — sailed through Helle-gat 
into the Sound — 'T Groot Baai, the first vesseP to 

^ It is probable that the first Dutch post was on Castle Island, be- 
low Albany (after 1630 called Van Rensselaer's, or Patroon's Island), 
and that Block's huts were the first European dwellings on Manhat- 
tan. There was probably no fort worthy the name before Minuil's 
arrival in 1626, when a block-house, surrounded by cedar palisades, 
was built. See Brodhead's History of New York, vol. i., p. 755. 
A bronze tablet has been erected by the Holland Society on the site 
of Block's huts, at 41-45 Broadway. 

- Adrian Block's new Jaght was a little craft, forty-two and one- 
half feet in length, by eleven and one-half in breadth, of but eight 
lasts' burden. 

^ Estevan Gomez, sent out in 1525 by Charles V. and merchants of 
Corunna, in search of the North-west Passage, sailed along the coast 
from Newfoundland to latitude 40°. Palfrey says : " Probably he 



8 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

make that perilous passage.* Block gave the name 
of Helle-Gat to all the East River, perhaps after 
Helle-gat, a branch of the Scheldt, between the 
manors of Axel and Hulst,'' but more probably in 
rough expression of the peril encountered. 

Entering the Sound, Adrian Block was too expe- 
rienced a navigator not to recognise the value of 
this beautiful inland sea, until then uncut by Euro- 
pean keel, and of the indented coast on either side, 

sailed through Long Island Sound to the Hudson River, which he 
named the Rio de San Antonio." — History of New England^ vol. i., 
p. 65. 

The first English vessel sailed through the Sound in 1619 under 
Captain Thomas Dermer, an agent of Gorges. After passing Cape- 
v?ack (Martha's Vineyard) and sailing westvifard, he discovered land 
" hitherto thought to be main," and winding through " many crooked 
and strait passages " (see Nathaniel Morton's " New-England's Me- 
morial), he reached and defied the Dutch post on Manhattan. He 
calls Hell Gate, "a most dangerous Cateract between small rocky 
islands, occasioned by two unequal tides, the one ebbing and flowing 
two hours before the other. From thence we were carried by the 
tides swiftness into a great Bay which gave us sight of the sea." — 
Dermer's Letter, December 27, 1619. 

' Its dangers had not become familiar when in 1670, in his Descrip- 
tion of Nezv York, Daniel Denton wrote of it as sending forth "a 
hideous roaring, enough to fright any stranger from passing any 
farther, and to wait for some Charon to carry him through." 

In 1678, the Reverend Charles Wolley, Chaplain at Fort James, in 
his Two Years your nail in New York, calls it, " as dangerous and 
unaccountable as the Norway Whirl-pool, or Maelstrom," and a 
later traveller, Burnaby, in 1760, declares, "It is impossible to go 
through this place without being reminded of Scylla and Charybdis." 

^ See O'Callaghan's History of New A^etherland, vol. i., p. 72. 
Compare with this De Laet's remark ten years later in De Novis Or- 
bis, " Our people call it Helle-Gat, or Inferni Os. " An old French 
manuscript of the seventeenth century also speaks of it as " trou 
d'Enfer." 



BLOCK S DISCOVERIES. 9 

at his right, so rich in land-locked harbours. These 
harbours he entered ; he sailed up the Connecticut 
above the site of Hartford, naming it 'T Versch 
Rivier ; he explored Narragansett and Buzzard's 
Bays, calling the former Nassau Baai. He named 
'T Roode Eylandt, which need not seek its proto- 
nym in yEgean waters; he rounded Cape Cod,-- 
'T Vlacke Hoeck, or Cape Malabar of the next gen- 
eration, and landed at several places on Massachu- 
setts Bay as far north as Nahant. It is not strange 
that the Dutch set the bounds of Nieuw Nederlandt 
by right of discovery." At Cape Cod, Block left the 
Onriist with Cornells Hendricxsen to be used in the 
coasting fur trade, and returned to Holland in the 
Fortune. His voyage was followed by Mey, schip- 
per of the Blyde Bootscap^ soon after skirting the 
southern shore of Mattowacks to its extreme point, 
and thus completing the discovery of Long Island, 
and five years before Dermer's voyage, proving it 
not to be " main." 

Six months after,' the weather-beaten Block ap- 
peared at The Hague before the Lords of the United 
Belgic Provinces, in Council assembled. He dis- 

' In the " Figurative Map" presented to the States-General, August 
i8, 1616, and found by Mr. Brodhead at The Hague in 1841, Nieuw 
Nederlandt extends from Virginia — all territory south of latitude 40° 
— to the Penobscot, beyond which all to the eastward was New 
France. 

'^ Good Tidings. 

^October 11, 1614. On that same, day the versatile Captain John 
Smith was showing to the young Prince Charles of England, the chart 
and the journals of his own recently finished voyage exploring the 
coast from the Penobscot to Cape Cod. The name, New England, 
was then given by Charles. 



10 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

played his rudely drawn chart, and told his story 
with such convincing force, that then and there the 
name of Nieuw Nederlandt was given to the un- 
known land, and the wise Barneveldt was moved to 
declare, that " In course of time these regions might 
become of great political importance to the Dutch 
Republic." 

A charter ' was at once issued for three years to 
the merchants represented by Block, as the United 
Netherlands Company, privileged to trade in the ter- 
ritorj^ lying between Virginia and New France. Its 
agents made the first settlement on the Island of 
Manhattan. Seven years later, June 3, 162 1, the 
States-General granted under the name of " ' T Good- 
royeerde West Indise Compagnie," such a renewal 
and extension of the original privileges as gave for 
more than fifty years, to a trading corporation of 
private men, sovereign and almost supreme power. 
They were empowered to plant colonies from the 
Tropic of Cancer to the Cape of Good Hope, from 
Cape Horn to Greenland. It was theirs to make 
war, or to conclude peace ; to contract alliances ; to 
administer justice ; to appoint or to remove officers. 
The Company was to all intents and purposes, an 
independent autonomy. 

Its executive power was vested in the Five Cham- 
bers, representing Amsterdam, Zealand, Maez, Fries- 
land, and North Holland. Of these, Amsterdam, 
which specially directed the affairs of Nieuw Neder- 
landt, held four ninths, and Zealand, two ninths of 
the capital of twelve million florins ($5,280,000). 

' See fac-simile in Memorial History of New York, vol. i., p. 129. 



THE WEST INDIA COMPANY. II 

From the directors were chosen the general com- 
mittee, and the executive board, called the College of 
XIX.' 

The West India Company had been first planned 
in 1604 by Willem Usselincx, a far-seeing merchant 
of Antwerp. But just as the Lords of the Council 
were about to sign the charter, the conclusion of a 
truce with Spain prevented their action. The new 
charter was issued for twenty-four years, and its 
privileges were later continued and renewed. The 
States-General reserved an appellate jurisdiction 
and issued commissions to the governors appointed, 
but the governors took the oath of allegiance to the 
West India Company also, and that body was the 
virtual source of power. During the year 1621, all 
inhabitants of the Netherlands, or indeed of any 
other country, might become stockholders. It then 
became a close corporation into which no new mem- 
bers were to be admitted, and in 1623 its organisa- 
tion was completed : Nieuw Nederlandt was erected 
into a Province of the States-General privileged to 
use the armorial bearings of an earldom. Its pro- 
vincial seal was a beaver proper on a shield sur- 
mounted by a count's coronet. 

But the West India Company was instituted not 
merely in the interests of trade. A distinct provi- 
sion of its charter instructs the directors to further 

' The number of the directors was not proportionate to the stock 
of the several provinces, Amsterdam having only twenty, and Zea- 
land twelve, while each of the other Chambers was represented by 
fourteen men. In the College of XIX., however, Amsterdam fur- 
nished eight members ; Zealand, four; Maez, two ; North Holland, 
two ; and the States-General, one. 



12 EARLY LONG LSLAND. 

" the peopling of the fruitful and unsettled parts," 
a purpose which they endeavoured wisely to carry 
out. Their right to the country — the right of dis- 
covery as understood by the law of nations, was not 
undisputed in deed, nor by the historians of the 
seventeenth century. In the Chronological Obser- 
vations on America, by John Josselyn, Gentleman, 
are these notes : 

" 1609. Hudson's third voyage to New found 
land discovers Mohegan River in New England. 
The Dutch sat down by Mohegan River. 

"1614. New Netherland began to be planted upon 
Mohegan River. Sir Samuel Argall routed them." 

This supposed visit of Argall has been a matter 
of much dispute, but the evidence in its support 
vanishes before careful scrutiny. Purchas says noth- 
ing thereof, nor is it mentioned in Smith's Generall 
Historic of Virginia. It is claimed that returning 
with Dale from their murderous descent upon Port 
Royal, an expedition in wanton cruelty exceeded 
only by Menendez's massacre at the River of May, 
Argall entered the bay and terrified the half dozen 
traders at Manhattan into an acknowledgment of 
English supremacy : " Hereupon the Dutch Gov- 
ernor submits himself and his plantation to his Ma- 
jesty of England, and to the Governor of Virginia 
for and under him." ' Ogilby ' also speaks of his 
coming, " when the Dutch were scarce warm in 

' See Collections New Yo7-k Historical Society, series ii., vol. i., 
P- 335- 

^ America, being an Accurate Description of the New World. By 
John Ogilby, Gent., of Ireland, 1670. 



ARGALL'S VISIT. I 3 

their quarters " and asserts that they then admitted 
the claims of King James. 

Beauchamp Plantagenet,' writing in 1648, says 
that Argall returning from Mount Desert to Vir- 
ginia, " landed at Monhattas Isle where they found 
four houses and a pretended Dutch Governor under 
the West India Company, who kept trading boats 
and trucked with the Indians. But the said knight 
told them their commission was to expell them and 
all alien intruders on his Majesty's dominions and 
territories, this being a part of Virginia discovered 
by Henry Hudson, an Englishman." But errors are 
obvious in all these narrations.* That a few years 
later, Argall planned such an expedition is clear. 
In 1619, he writes to Purchas, that "the Hollanders 
as interlopers have fallen into ye middle betwixt ye 
plantations of Virginia and New-England." In 162 1, 
he purposed their expulsion, but learning how well 
the ground was occupied, " a Demurre in their 
p''ceding was caused."' 

In 1621, Captain Dermer, sailing from Virginia to 
New England, resolved to assert the claim which in 
his perilous passage of Helle-gat he had not at- 
tempted. He met " the Hollanders who traded 
at Hudson's River," and held various " conferences " 
with them, " warning them not to continue in 
English territory," and, adds Gorges, " forbade 

* Supposed to be the pseudonym of Sir Edmund Plowden. 

'^ Brodhead says : " This favourite story is very suspicious and in- 
consistent with State papers" {History of New York, vol. i., p. 54). 
while so careful an antiquarian as the late H. M. Murphy, declares 
it a " pure fiction unsustained by any good anthority." 

* See Winsor's Critical History of America, vol. iv., p. 427. 



14 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

them the place as being by his Majesty appointed 
to us." One may guess these remonstrances had 
sHght effect upon the matter-of-fact Hollanders. 

Later, an anonymous writer ' says that " the 
Hollanders have stolen into a River called Hudson's 
River in the limits of Virginia and about 39°. They 
have built a strong Fort there, and call it Prince 
Maurice's River and New Netherland. . . . Thus 
are the English nosed in all places and out-traded 
by the Dutch. They would not suffer the English 
to use them so, but they have vigilant statesmen 
and advance all they can for a common good, and 
will not spare any encouragement to their people to 
discover." 

Following the hypothetical attack by Argall, and 
the fruitless mission of Dermer, was a still more 
vague attempt at English possession. Through it, 
as part of the Palatinate of New Albion, Long 
Island was included in one of the most visionary of 
all the chimerical schemes for the peopling of the 
New World. Scarcely six years after the purchase 
of Manhattan by the Dutch, Sir Edmund Plowden, 
Knight, and other adventurers, addressed to Charles 
L a " humble peticon," '' which " sheweth " as 
follows : 

" Whereas there is a small place w'^in the confines 
of Virginia — 150 myles northward from the Savages 
and James Citty, without the Bay of Chesapeak, 

^ A Perfect Description of Virginia, Printed at the Star under 
Peter s Church, i64g. Massachusetts Historical Collections, series ii., 
vol. ix., p. 113. 

^ London Colonial Papers, vol. vi. , No. 60. (In N'. Y. Hist. Soc'y 
Collections, 1869, p. 215.) 



ISLE PLOW DEN. . I 5 

and a convenient Isle there to be inhabited called 
Manitie, or Long Island, in 39° of Lattitude, and 
not formerly granted." The Petitioners " are will- 
ing, now at their own coste and chardges to aduen- 
ture, plant and settle there three hundred Inhabitants 
for the making of wine, saulte and Iron, fishing of 
Sturgeon and mullet. . . . Humbly beseeching 
your most excellent ma"- to make to your subjects 
the aduenturers a pattent of ye saide Isle and 30 
myles of ye coste adjoining to be erected into a 
County Palatine called Syon." 

To this memorial a gracious reply is returned from 
the Court at Oatlands, July 24, 1632. The King 
having been " informed that there is a certain habit- 
able and fruitful Island near the Continent of Vir- 
ginia, named the Isle Plowden, or Long-Isle, whereof 
neither we nor our Royall progenitors have hitherto 
made any grant,' which being by our people care- 
fully planted and inhabited, may prove of good con- 
sequence to our Subjects and Kingdom," he grants 
" the said Isle Plowden, or Long-Isle, between 39° 
and 40° north lattitude ^ and forty leagues square of 

' The original grant of James I. to Sir William Alexander, made 
in 1621, included Long Island, which also came within the bounds of 
the Plymouth Company. 

'■^ Beauchamp Plantagenet, in 1648, describes the bounds of New 
Albion as follows : " Our south bound is Maryland' s north bounds 
and begineth at Aquats, or the southernmost or first cape of Dela- 
ware Bay in 38° 40' and so runneth , . . and thence northward 
to the head of Hudson's River, 50 leagues, and so down Hudson's 
River, to the ocean 60 leagues, and thence all Hudson's River's Isles, 
Long-Isle, or Paumimke, and all Isles within 10 leagues of the said 
Province. Long-Isle alone is about twenty miles broad and one hun- 
dred and eighty long." — Force' s Colonial Tracts. 



l6 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

the adjoining country, to be holden of our Crown of 
Ireland under the name of New Albion, to Sir Ed- 
mund Plowden as the first Governor." 

The stately title of Earl Palatine as foreign to our 
soil as Locke's later Carolinian dignities, passed in 
two years to the son of Sir Edmund, and was pre- 
served in the Maryland family for two generations, 
though with but little of the ancestral jurisdiction. 
Meanwhile a lease had been granted to Sir Thomas 
Danby of ten thousand acres, one hundred of which 
were to be " on the N. E. end or cape of Long 
Island." ' To him was given the right to establish a 
Court-Baron and a Court-Leet, with the privileges of 
town and manor wherever should be formed a set- 
tlement of a hundred planters. The only restriction 
was " to suffer none to live therein not believing, or 
professing the three Christian creeds, commonly 
called the Apostolical, the Athanasian, and the 
Nicene," 

Just before the Revolution, the Reverend Charles 
Varlo bought one-third of the land chartered as New 
Albion. In 1784 he visited the country, " invested 
with proper authority as Governor of the Province, 
not doubting the enjoyment of his property." He 
travelled through Long Island, New Jersey, Penn- 
sylvania, Maryland, and Delaware. He issued a 
proclamation in the name of the Earl of Albion, and 
in July, 1785, published a "Caution to the Good 
People of the Province of New Albion, corruptly 
called the Jerseys," not to buy nor contract for land 
in the said province. He also advertised, " the 

' The greater part was near Watresset, now Salem, New Jersey. 



'T ORANJIEN BOVEN. 1 7 

finest part of America to be Sold or Lett, from 
800 to 4000 acres in a farm, all that Entire Estate 
called Long Island in New Albion, Lying near 
New York, belonging to the Earl Palatine of New 
Albion." ' 

But, despite these spasmodic efforts of England to 
possess the entire coast along which Cabot sailed, 
the Dutch discoverers held their ground for half a 
century. In the western part of Long Island as 
thoroughly as on the Island of Manhattan, or in the 
valley of the Hudson, " 'T Oranjien Boven " — rally- 
ing cry of the United Netherlands — was supreme. 
The story of the planting of Nieuw Amsterdam is 
one with the first settling of Brooklyn and of the 
neighbouring towns. Thus it was that under the 
Company's flag of orange, blue, and white, and in 
the brief rule of the first Director-General, the Wal- 
loon Deacon, Peter Minuit,' the Dutch period of the 
history of Long Island begins. 

' Varlo afterward attempted to gain possession of his estates 
through a protracted suit in Chancery. 

^ Peter Minuit, a Hollander of Huguenot descent, was an officer in 
the French Church at Wessel. The first Governor bearing the title 
of Director-General, he reached Nieuw Amsterdam in the Sea Meiv, 
May 4, 1626, after a perilous voyage of more than three months. He 
had been preceded by Willem Verhulst, and he by Cornells Mey, 
who first organised a civil government in 1624, a year after the 
arrival of the Nieuw Nederlandt with thirty families, chiefly Wal- 
loons. Of these, the greater number went up the river and founded 
Fort Orange, but a few remained on Manhattan, becoming the first 
permanent settlers of New Amsterdam, while there is strong reason 
to believe that at least one family thus early seated itself on the 
Waal Boght, 



II. 



THE LAND. 



LONG ISLAND, seat of the oldest English set- 
tlements in New York, is nevertheless, the 
most recently formed land of the State. It 
is scarcely even organically a part of that early up- 
heaval of archsean beds which composes the Island 
of Manhattan, and through which for long leagues 
the once more mighty Hudson broke its course to 
the sea. It is only in a brief half-mile at Hallet's 
Cove, opposite Hell Gate, that these Montalban for- 
mations appear, in a hornblende slate and a gneiss- 
oid rock directly beneath the drift. With this 
exception, the Tertiary underlies the entire island, 
whose surface strata are from the shifting sands of 
the sea, and from the glacial deposits pushed down 
the Connecticut River valley in comparatively recent 
times.' 

Evolved from such differing component elements, 

' An uplifting of two hundred feet would make Long Island Sound 
dry ground. The Indians held a tradition that in former times they 
could cross the East River at Hell Gate, stepping from rock to rock. 
The island is now subsiding at the rate of a few inches a century. 

i8 



THE ISLAND BACKBONE. 1 9 

the topography of Long Island, in every acre of its 
surface, speaks of one or the other of the opposing 
forces. The popular division of '* North Side" and 
" South Side " is one not merely of local conveni- 
ence, but of great natural significance. 

The backbone of the island runs nearly its one 
hundred and twenty miles of length, from New 
Utrecht to Orient, and is part of the great termihal 
moraine extending from the Atlantic to Minnesota. 
It divides almost equally the average breadth of the 
island, which is about fifteen miles. The fertile 
North Side borders the Sound, its picturesque shores 
broken by the beautiful bays and inlets running up 
country into short tide-water rivers, forming the 
cross valleys so characteristic of the region. The 
South Side slopes smoothly to the sea, sandy and 
seemingly sterile, yet most responsive to intelligent 
cultivation. So abrupt is the transition from undu- 
lating fields and wooded dells to the unbroken tree- 
less stretch of the Great Plains, that through a long 
reach of country " The Plain-Edge " is the name it 
bears — one of those autochthonic names which are 
the direct outcome of the nature of things. 

The Hempstead Plains, a most marked feature of 
Queens County, are continued westward by "The 
Little Plains," on which Governor Nicoll, in 1665, 
established his race-course of New-Market. Sixteen 
miles in length, sixty thousand acres in extent, the 
Plains were the common pasturage of the early 
planters. Seventeen thousand acres were so held 
throughout the eighteenth century. By a strange 
misconception, the soil was deemed too porous to be 



20 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

ploughed, and no attempt was made at cultivation 
until within a hundred years, when it was first en- 
closed as farms. One hundred and twenty feet 
above the sea-level it slopes imperceptibly to the 
beach in a prairie-like expanse. The grass formerly 
grew to the height of five or six feet, but the 
earliest variety — " Secretary grass " — was short and 
fine, making a very thick, tough sod, which required 
two yokes of oxen in breaking it up. In 1670, 
Daniel Denton wrote of the Plains : " There is neither 
stick nor stone, and it produceth very fine grass 
which makes exceeding good hay which is no small 
benefit to the towns which own it." ' 

A belt of very fertile soil, called " The Red 
Ground," runs through the towns of Oyster Bay 
and Hempstead. Thorough drainage everywhere 
results from the under-stratum of gravel, ensuring a 
wholesome climate. Clay, not sand, is the chief in- 
gredient of the soil, superficially darkened with vege- 
table mould.^ The " Dry Rivers" are very distinct 
on the Plains, and are often used as road-beds. The 
hard bottoms, thin soil, meandering course, definite 

' Denton also describes the phenomena of " Looming " (mirage) as 
often visible over the Hempstead Plains. 

"^ The Swedish botanist, Kalm, travelling in America in 1749, 
writes of Long Island : " The soil of the south part is very poor, but 
this deficiency is made up by a vast quantity of oysters, lobsters, 
crabs, fish, and numbers of water-fowl, all of which are far more 
abundant than on the north shore of the Island. When the tide is 
out, it is easy to fill a whole cart with oysters which have been driven 
ashore by one flood. The Island is strewn with oyster shells and 
other shells which the Indians have left there." — Kalm's Travels, 
vol. ii., p. 226. 



GLACIAL DEPOSITS. 21 

banks, and abundance of fresh-water shells, all attest 
the fluviatile origin of these channels. 

The glacial drift covers the North Side, strewn 
with scattered bowlders,' cobbles, pebbles, of remote 
and varied origin. There is an Indian tradition that 
the present surface conditions of Long Island and 
Connecticut were once reversed. The Evil Spirit 
set up a claim to the mainland which the red men 
resisted and drove him thence across the " Stepping 
Stones," which extend to the foot of Great Neck 
and eastward to Coram. There he planned revenge. 
Gathering into heaps at Cold Spring the great rocks 
with which the island was then thickly strewn, he 
threw them across the Sound over the smooth maize 
lands of Connecticut. The prints of his feet upon a 
rock at Cold Spring were often shown to the early 
settlers. 

Nowhere does one find bed-rock. The soil, to ap- 
pearance sandy and gravelly, has a body of clay and 
is rich in phosphates. Beds of clay suitable for 
brick-making and for coarse pottery are not infre- 
quent. Dr. Robert Childs, Doctor of Corpus Christi 
and of Padua, writes from Boston to the younger 
John Winthrop, March i6, 1646, as follows: 

" I have a desir to set ye glassemen on worke if 

' Some of these bowlders are of great size, as notably Kidd's Rock 
at Sands's Point, about which have been hundreds of excavations in 
search of hidden treasure. "The Millstone Rock" at Manhasset, 
the largest bowlder on the Island, is a mass of granite schist measur- 
ing forty-four by thirty-five feet, and thirteen feet above ground, with 
an estimated weight of fifteen hundred tons. 

The bowlders are most numerous in North Hempstead and in 
Flushing. 



22 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

only we could acquire a little of ye clay of Long 
Island. We hope if you goe to ye Dutch in yo' 
small boate yt will bring a tun or 2 to yo' plantacon 
and exactly marke ye place yt you may readily finde 
it hereafter. I pitty ye poore men who are honest 
and ingenuos." 

There is excellent potter's clay at Whitestone and 
at Lloyd's Point. Mr. Brodhead pronounces the 
potteries of Long Island in 1661 to equal the best 
manufacture of Delft.' East of Flushing, the clay 
is not seldom so permeated with iron as to be of an 
ochreous nature, while geodes and concretions of 
limonite, lignite, and fossilised woods were found 
by Mather from Lloyd's Point eastward. The wood 
was in some cases carbonised,'' in others changed to 
a bog-iron ore. Few authentic fossils' have been 

' Among early advertisements, may be noticed the following : 

" March 31, 1735, the widow of Thomas Farrington offers for sale 
her farm at Whitestone, opposite Frog's Neck. It has 20 acres of 
clay-ground fit for making tobacco pipes." 

" May 31, 1751. Any person desirous of being supplied with 
vases, urns, flower-pots, &c., to adorn gardens and tops of houses, 
or any other ornament made of clay by Edmund Aunely at White- 
stone, he having set up the potters' business by means of a German 
family who are supposed by their work to be the most ingenious that 
ever arrived in America. He has clay capable of making 8 different 
kinds of ware." 

^ October g, 1677. " John Thompson of Setauket has a permit to 
go to Flushing and other parts of Long Island to search for sea-coal, 
of which he hath probable information." 

In the Report of the Board of Trade for 172 1, "A Representation 
of the State of His Majesty's Colonies and Plantations on the Conti- 
nent of North America," it is said, "there are coal mines on Long 
Island which have not yet been worked." 

"'In 1858 a few remains of a mastodon were found at Baisley's 



LONG ISLAND SPRINGS. 23 

discovered, but everywhere, at a depth of forty or 
fifty feet, shells of existing species* are found. 

All along the North Shore springs of very pure 
water issue from the gravel beds scarcely above the 
reach of the tide. Many of these at the head of the 
bays supply large streams of water which are 
dammed in their narrow valleys, forming pools at 
once a source of motive power and of great scenic 
beauty. Other ponds there are, scattered sylvan 
mirrors, filling frequent saucer-shaped depressions or 
" Sinks " in the ground, spots where perhaps melted 
the last stranded icebergs of a glacial epoch.'' 

On the Plains, springs are more rare. To one on 
Manetta Hill ^ a supernatural origin was ascribed. 
An Indian legend tells that during a long drought, 
the people prayed the Great Spirit for relief. The 
beneficent Manitou directed the chief to shoot an 
arrow into the air and where it fell, to dig for water. 
The arrow dropped on a slight eminence near West- 
bury, and digging there, an abundant and perma- 
nent spring burst forth. 

The beautiful Lake Ronkonkoma presents a prob- 
lem to which slight scientific scrutiny has been given. 
The surface of the lake, some three miles in circuit, 
is eighty feet above the sea-level, while from twenty 
to thirty feet below the surrounding country. At 

Pond near Jamaica, the fragments, six molars and a piece of a 

femur, were blackened but not mineralised, and crumbled soon after 

exposure to the air. 

' Chiefly Ostrea Virginica and Venus mercenaria, 

^ In the unusually dry October of 1892, several of these ponds were 

dry for the first time in the memory of man. 
^ Manetta, a corruption of Manitou. 



24 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

intervals of several years the lake has its periods of 
marked advance and recession. In a few weeks the 
beach of dazzling whiteness, fringed with maritime 
plants will be submerged by the rising waters which 
creep far into the surrounding woodlands. After 
some months the waters gradually lower, reducing 
the lake to its usual area. But of these movements 
no exact observations have been made, and it is idle 
to base a hypothesis of any secular phenomena 
upon merely occasional observation and popular 
report.' Curious beliefs are current in the neighbour- 
hood about the lake and this strange periodicity. 
One story asserts that articles dropped into its un- 
fathomed depths, months after appear on the sur- 
face of a Connecticut pond. The Indians had a 
most superstitious reverence for Ronkonkoma. 
They even refused to catch the fish thronging its 
clear waters, believing them under the special pro- 
tection of the Great Spirit, while on its white beach 
were held the most solemn of their Kintecoys. Its 
very name suggests a question of some historic im- 
portance. Ronkonkoma, in melodious contrast to 
most of the Algonquin names, is sonorous as an 
Iroquois word. May not a trace of the vassalage to 
the Five Nations be preserved in the stately name 
of this mysterious sheet of water ? 

The Salt-Meadows with their heavy crops of 
marsh grasses, giving the dearly relished salt-hay, 

' Thoreau notes in Walden Pond a rise and fall of six or seven feet 
independent of the varying rainfall, but he wisely refrains from any 
hasty explanation of a fluctuation which, whether periodical or not, 
requires many years for its accomplishment. — Walden, p. lo, 196. 



THE BARRIER REEFS. 2$ 

are valuable tracts which being dyked would greatly 
add to the arable area of the island. The line of 
barrier reefs from Sagg to Coney Island, broken 
only by an occasional " gut " ' gives a channel for 
inland navigation two-thirds the length of the 
Island. 

Nothing is so fluctuating and unstable as " the 
solid earth," and nowhere can one better mark its 
changes than on this sea-born island of Nassau. 
But Neptune, like his father Kronos, devours his 
offspring. Within the two centuries of intelligent 
observation, there have been many gains of land and 
frequent annexation of out-lying islets, but the 
ocean ever beats and buffets the undefended coast 
and carries its spoils to build up some other land 
whose history is not yet begun. 

The northeast winds of the heaviest storms sweep 
westward the silt-laden waves with a tendency to 
deposit the detritus in bars, shoals, or spits at the 
outlet of the various bays along the Sound, thus 
gradually filling up. Great Hog Neck, and Little 
Hog Neck, near Sag Harbour, were not long ago 
islands ; the eastern half of the town of Southold 
consists of three connected islands ; Lloyd's Neck 
was an island ; Eaton's Neck, a group of four. 
Great Pond Bay, Fort Pond Bay, and Neapogue 
represent the straits which once separated into 

' Gut, from the Dutch " gat," or gate. Van der Donck speaks of 
these passages as " convenient gaten." Judge Benson says every 
inlet on the South Shore was formerly called a gut. There is a well 
authenticated tradition that Fire Island Gut broke through in the 
great storm of 1691. 



26 EARL Y LONG ISLAND. 

islands the peninsular extension of Easthampton/ 
while Great South Beach, stretching its length of 
sand and shingle full twenty leagues, if not formed 
within the historic period, is still of very recent 
origin. 

To counterbalance these continuous gains in ex- 
tent, there is no less sure loss, and the two are now, 
perhaps, equally balanced. Indian tradition points 
to no remote time when Plum Island was connected 
with Long Island, and there is not a doubt that 
Fisher's Island was once part of the encircling reef 
which made of the Sound a true Mediterranean. 
Montauk Point," the defiant finger stretched out to 
sea, is still constantly yielding to the fierce surf 
which breaks at the base of its jagged cliffs, those 
untamed waves which have gathered their force in 
an Atlantic's breadth, and whose resistless momen- 
tum is encroaching equally on the defenceless 
Neapogue Beach. ^ 

' The Neapogue Isthmus now connects the peninsula with the 
main island. On the Point are several ponds of fresh water— Great 
Pond, Fort Pond, Fresh Pond, and Money Pond, where it is believed 
Kidd buried two chests of gold coin. Near by is a chalybeate spring, 
of former repute for its medicinal virtues. 

^ Secretary van Tienhoven, in 1649, describes Montauk Point as 
" entirely covered with trees, somewhat hilly and stoney, very conven- 
ient for cod-fishing, which is most successfully followed by the natives 
during the season." 

'^ Mather calculates that a thousand tons of rock are daily changing 
place on the northern shore, and that an equal amount is taken from 
the fifteen miles of the Neapogue Beach. This equals in volume one 
square rod, fifty feet in depth, the average height of the Montauk 
cliffs. Thus can be estimated the probable future of the unguarded 
coast. — State Geological Survey, Part I., p. 30. 



THE SOUTH SHORE. 2 J 

Coney Island, with its smooth and yearly lessen- 
ing strand, is all that remains of the sand hills where 
but a hundred years ago, cedar posts were cut two 
miles beyond the present shore line.' 

The protecting bars of the South Shore are lifted 
but just above the rolling surf and are smoothed 
by every in-coming tide, or, beyond its reach the 
sands are drifted, white and fantastic as the wreaths 
of a winter's storm. Farther eastward the Shinne- 
cock Hills" assume some permanence of form, held 
together by a coarse, wiry grass, but sustaining only 
the stunted bayberry,' the beach plum, and the 
dwarfed red cedar. 

On the North Side a score of " Necks," with 
names of homely significance, rising in cliffs from 
fifty to a hundred feet, break the shore line of Queens 
and western Suffolk. Among other harbours of 
historic interest are Cow Bay, Hempstead Harbour, 
Oyster Bay, and Huntington Bay, while from Old- 
field Point and Mount Misery the shore sweeps in 
one bold curve eastward to the Oyster Pond Point, 
years ago an island, now, by the continued accretion 
of sand, a spit of the main Island, and by the 
euphemism of modern nomenclature, — Orient Point. 

Rising above Hempstead Harbour, and equally 
distant from Huntington Bay, are Harbour Hill 

' The ocean for fifty miles south of Long Island is very shallow, 
nowhere more than forty fathoms in depth. 

* With an average height of over one hundred feet. 

"^ Myrica cerifera. Throughout the Island the bayberry or candle- 
berry was of recognised value. The town laws of Brookhaven, in 
1687, forbade the gathering of the berries before September 15th, 
under penalty of a fine of fifteen shillings. 



28 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

and Oakley's High Hill-field. The two dispute the 
honour of being the highest land on Long Island, 
and the friends of each maintain its greater Altitude 
in calm disregard of theodolite and measuring chain. 
But the United States Signal Service Survey gives 
to the Oakley Hill the greater height — three hun- 
dred and fifty-four feet.' As one leaves the vine- 
tangled highway through West Hill, and, in shelter 
of a heavy chestnut wood, drives over the sparse 
grass of the thin, slippery soil, up the steep ascent to 
the summit of this " High Hill-field," a magnificent 
view bursts upon his glad vision. From Sound to 
Ocean, Long Island is a map at his feet. In the 
clear sunshine, the sea, the plains, the woodland, the 
red-bronze of the salt marshes, give the entire chro- 
matic scale. Peconic Bay is a great sapphire set in 
beryl ; the Connecticut hamlets are hazy in the 
north ; the blue Sound is flecked with passing sails, 
and far to the southward, beyond the purple rim of 
ocean, rises the faint trail of smoke from an incom- 
ing steamer. 

It is hard to-day, for one who merely skirts the 
villa-studded shores of Long Island, to reconstruct 
the scenes of two hundred years ago, or to guess 
how sylvan is the landscape, how primitive are still 
many of the conditions of life, but a mile or two in- 
land. One may drive for hours through embowered 

' Styles's History of Kings County gives Harbour Hill three hun- 
dred and eighty-four feet, and Jane Hill (the Oakley Hill) three 
hundred and eighty-three feet. Blunt's Pilot gives Harbour Hill, 
visible from Sandy Hook, three hundred and nineteen feet, the same 
result as from Dr. S. L. Mitchell's measurement in 1816. 



LONG ISLAND FENCES. 29 

lanes, between thickets of alder and sumach, over- 
hung with chestnut and oak and pine, or through 
groves gleaming in spring with the white bloom of 
the dogwood, glowing in fall with liquidambar and 
peperidge, with sassafras, and the yellow light of 
the smooth-shafted tulip tree.' 

The farms are bordered with the English cherry 
which has become naturalised and taken to the 
fields. Everywhere the fences are whitened in April 
with the sweet promise of its early blossoms. In 
eastern Suffolk a unique form of hedgerow is com- 
mon, at once picturesque and distinctive. It is 
formed by cutting down the oaks or chestnuts leav- 
ing the stumps and prone bodies of the trees to 
form a line of rude fence. The sprouts are then al- 
lowed to grow up, and their contorted branches in- 
terlaced with blackberry and greenbriar form an 
impenetrable barrier. They, in their turn, are cut 
and re-cut, until the hedge becomes several feet in 
thickness, the abode of singing birds and of the more 
timid marauders of the field. 

Many a comfortable old farmhouse is shingled to 
the ground with cedar shingles bleached by the 
storms of a hundred winters, and shaded, perhaps, 
by the very locusts which Captain John Sands, 
husband of the beautiful Sibyl Ray of Block Island, 
first brought from Virginia to Long Island, on a 

' Near Success Pond was a tulip tree twenty-six feet in girth, so 
tall as to be a landmark to boats passing through the Sound. Many 
noteworthy trees are still standing. On the Bryant estate at Roslyn 
is a walnut one hundred and fifty feet in height with a circumference 
of thirty feet. At Mattatuck is an old mulberry of twelve feet girth ; 
at Riverhead, a weeping willow twenty-one feet girth. 



30 EARLY LONG LSLAND. 

return voyage of his coasting schooner, full two cen- 
turies ago/ One may chance upon a block house," 
with its story of Indian assault or Revolutionary 
struggle, or the gaunt windmills of the Hamptons, 
or beneath venerable, sheltering willows, such a rude 
moss-grown mill with splashing wheel, as Constable 
loved to paint. 

Beyond Queens County the main ridge trends to 
the northeast, and the centre of the Island has been 
until very lately, for fifty miles an unbroken wilder- 
ness, rich in game. The forest growth, ' repeatedly 
destroyed by fire, has been replaced by low, gnarled 
oaks ' which have given to the tract the name of the 
Brush Plains. Above the yellow soil is a superficial 
layer of white beach-sand, through which struggles 
the thickly matted bearberry,^ here called " Deer- 
food." Its crimson berries and evergreen leaves are 
in winter, almost the only sustenance of the deer 

^ Such a one stands in the grounds of Mr. George W. Cocks at 
Glen Cove. 

'^ The Block House near Herricks was built during the Revolution 
by one Hoyt, on the turnpike not far from Jericho. It was intended 
as a storehouse for the protection of the property of the Whigs. 

^ Early Long Island was thickly wooded, and its town legislation 
showed a rare wisdom in regard to the preservation of its trees. In 
1653, " South Old resolved that no persons should cut trees or sell 
wood from the common lands, without the towne's libertie." In 
1659, Huntington ordained that no timber should be cut within three 
miles of the settlement under fine of five shillings for every tree. 
Ten years later it forbade that any wood be cut for exportation, or 
that any " stranger shall cut anie timber." Oyster Bay and Newtown 
passed similar regulations. 

* Quercus ilici folia. 

* ArctostaphyJos uva-vrsi. 



THE LONG ISLAND FLORA. 3 I 

which in diminished number still haunt their ances- 
tral runs. 

In open plains or woodland, in marsh or glen, 
there are few parts of Long Island which do not 
richly reward the searcher for the more beautiful and 
more rare of our native plants ; be he botanist, or 
their disinterested lover. Even the sweet bay ' has 
wandered northward and hides in a forest swamp 
near Turtle Pond. In early spring every untilled 
spot answers the first warm breezes with the fragrance 
of the arbutus. A little later the cistus steals the 
sunshine for its fleeting bloom ; the sky is mirrored 
in luxuriant lupine and fields of blue-eyed grass, and 
Hempstead Plains outvie the heathery English 
moors with the rosy bloom of the most beautiful of 
the andromedas. 

The birds are very numerous and include many 
not seen elsewhere in New York.' Here it was at 
Hempstead, that the ornithologist Blackburn spent 
the year 1773. The large collections which he made 
added many new species to Pennant's Arctic Zoology 
then preparing, and here the Blackburnian Warbler 
still carols to his memory. 

Long Island is no fabled Arcadia ; but there are 
few regions of its extent which present as varied 
and charming scenery, few that more enthrall the 
one who has come to know it well. It may be that 
occult sympathy of dust for dust which Hawthorne 

' Magnolia glauca. 

^ Fifty years ago, DeKay's enumeration gave to Long Island, two 
thirds the land birds and seven eighths the water birds of the United 
States. 



32 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

found in Salem which makes her children under 
whatever skies, feel themselves a part of her very 
soil. Some mysterious power there is, which to the 
tenth generation holds their fond allegiance. 

A consideration of the continuous geological 
changes in Long Island, renders less grotesque the 
curious outlines of its early maps, where indeed 
these rude cartographers " builded better than they 
knew." Jacobsen's map, made for the West India 
Company in 162 1, gives Long Island as the " Ilant de 
Gebrokne Lant a group of six islands, the largest 
being to the eastward and called Matouwacs.' Still 
earlier and first of the maps specially illustrative of 
Nieuw Nederlandt, is the Figurative Map of Cornells 
Hendricxsen. This map ^ was attached to a Memorial 
praying for special octroi, addressed to the States 
General, August 18, 1616. It was found by Mr. 
Brodhead, fifty years ago, in " 'T Locket-Kas," pre- 
served, but forgotten, in the Royal Archives at the 
Hague. The chart is probably based upon the 
rough sketch of Adrian Block presented two years 
earlier, and to the discoveries of the Onrust, it adds 
those of the Fortune under its schipper, Hendricxsen. 
Rockaway Inlet and Oyster Bay thereon stretch 
from Sound to Ocean, making three distinct islands, 
the eastern marked as Mohican. 

Champlain's Map of 1632 gives to Long Island a 
coast-line absolutely unbroken by inlet or bay, and 

' North of Matouwacs is an archipelago. Fisher's Island is called 
Isla Langa. This map was reproduced in De Laet's N'ovis Orbis^ 
edition of 1630, and was the first printed map of Nieuw Nederlandt. 

' A facsimile is in the State Library at Albany. See also New 
York Colonial Documents, vol. i. 



Capo di olYmpo. 33 

names it the Isle de 1' Ascension. In Van der 
Donck's Map of Nova Belgica, 1656, which is an 
enlargement of the earlier chart made by Visscher, 
Long Island appears as a compact mass much fore- 
shortened, with only the Montauk peninsula, and a 
few vaguely scattered islands indicating the trend of 
the northern fork. 

Equally interesting are the various outlines and 
many names of Long Island as represented on the 
sixteenth century maps of the world at large. Ver- 
razano's own chart, " a mighty large old mappe in 
parchement," now lost,' was drawn b)^ the brother of 
Giovanno from data in the " Little Book " of the ex- 
plorer. Long Island is there made a part of the 
mainland and called Capo di Olympo. In Ribiera's 
chart of 1529, the northern hills of Long Island are 
indicated as " Montana vue," the special elevation 
being probably Harbour Hill, Hempstead, which is 
visible far out to sea. In 1537 Oviedo wrote a 
description of the country based on Alonzo 
Chauves's Map of 1536, which by order of Charles 
V. was drawn from official charts and early narra- 
tives. He repeats the names used by Ribiera, and 
adds: " From the Rio de Sanct Antonio, the coast 
runs N.E. one fourth East forty leagues to a point in 
front of the Bay of Sanct Johan Baptisa in 41° 30' 
north," an error of but one degree in placing Mon- 
tauk Point. 

Captain John Smith, as full of common-sense as 
of romantic enthusiasm, passes summary judgment 
on all these early maps : ..." I have had six or 

* Seen by Hakluyt in 1584. 



34 EARL Y LONG LSLAND. 

seven several! plots of these northern parts so vnlike 
each to other, or resemblance of the covntry, as they 
did me no more good than so much waste paper, 
though they cost me more." Of more trustworthy 
nature were the carefully drawn surveys of Nieuw 
Nederlandt which were lost at sea with the Director- 
General Kieft, in the wreck of the Princess, together 
with his many specimens of the minerals and plants 
of the Province. 

It is more important to turn from these crude and 
half imaginary maps to the narratives of the seven- 
teenth century explorers. There is a vivid touch 
and a wholesome honesty about these casual notes, 
which are most praiseworthy and refreshing. A 
passing mention of geographical position, of climate 
or soil, of the flora or of the fauna of a country from 
which every European expected only marvels, often 
throws a strong light upon the fading picture one 
seeks to restore. It will then help to reproduce 
these early days, if a few disconnected extracts are 
given, bearing upon Long Island. 

Johan de Laet, a distinguished Director of the 
West India Company, published in 1624, at Ley- 
den, in black-letter folio, his De Novis Orbis or 
Description of the West Indies. Compiled from 
various manuscript journals of the early voyagers, 
of Christiaensen, Mey, and Block, its value is held 
equal to original matter. Appearing in both Latin 
and Dutch, the work was widely read, and the source 
of the most definite knowledge then possessed. In 
Book III., Chapter V., approaching the Sound 
from the East, he tells us : " At the entrance of the 



MAN ATI ORE LONG ILE. 35 

Great Bay are situated several islands, or broken 
land on which a nation of savages have their abode, 
who are called Matouwacks : they obtain a livelihood 
by fishing within the bay, whence the most easterly 
point of land received the name of Fisher's Hook," 
and also Cape de Baye. This Cape and Block 
Island are set about twelve miles apart." 

Forty years later, in the Patent to James, Duke of 
York, the Island is thus placed : " All that Island or 
Islands commonly called by the severall name or 
names, Matouwacks, or Long Island, scituate, lying 
and being toward the West of Cape Codd and the 
Narrow Higansetts, abutting upon the Mainland." 

In Earl Strafford's Letters and Despatches ^ is a 
most curious pamphlet written in the interests of 
Plowden's aforementioned " Palatinate of New Al- 
bion." If regarded as a specimen of a seventeenth 
century land-agent's circular, the Munchausen 
flavour of certain paragraphs is explained. It is 
quaintly entitled 

THE 

COMMODITIES 

OF THE ILAND CALLED 

MANATI' ORE LONG ILE 

WHICH IS IN THE 
CONTINENT OF VIRGINIA. 



' Visscher's Hoeck (Montauk Point) was really named after the 
Dutch schipper, although called by Block, " Beck van die visschers." 
^ Public Record Office, London : Colonial Papers, vol. vi., No. 61. 
^ Manati signifies island in certain Indian dialects. 



36 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 



I. 



" First there grow naturally store of Black wild 
Vines w"^^ make verie good Vergies or Vinnuger for 
to use w''* meate or to dress Sturgeon, but for the 
Frenchman's art being boyld and ordred is Good 
wine, and remains for three moneths and no longer. 

II. 
** There is also great store of deere there and of 
the three soarts, the highest, sixteen hands, and 
there is also Buffaloes which will be ridden and 
brought to draw and plow. There are fayre Tur- 
keys far greater than heere, 500 in a flocke w'^ in- 
finite stores of Berries, Chestnuts. Beechnuts and 
Mast w'=^ they feed on. 

IV. 

" Thears Oacks of three several soarts w'^ Ash 
and Wallnut trees, Sweet red Ceadars and Pines, 
Fers and Deale and Sprace for mastes of shipping. 
All excellent Pudge and infinite Pitch and tarr. 

V. 

" Whole Groves of Wallnuts. Trees to make 
Wallnut oyle or milke in Fraunce worth ^,""20 a 
tunne. Groves of Mulberrie trees for silke wormes 
which in Ittaly are lett there as howses are heare 
for rent at 6/s the leaves of one Tree by the yeare. 

VII. 

" Fitt places for to make bay salte as in low clay 
lands as th>' doe in Fraunce, sooner, because hotter. 
. . . There are Ponds of Fresh Watter, three or 



THE RICHES OF MANA TI. 37 

four miles in compass, and Clay Cleefs likely for 
Iron Mines. There is infenite store of Fowle and 
egs of all soarts and sea and shell fish in abundance, 
and 1000 loade of oyster shells in a heape to make 
lime of. 

" The spring waters theare are as good as small 
beere here, but those that come from the woods are 
not as good, but altogeather naught." ' 

Captain John Underhill after describing the beau- 
tiful valley of the Connecticut, says : " If you would 
know the garden of New England, then }^ou must 
cast your eye upon Hudson's River, a place exceed- 
ing all yet named. Long Island also is a place 
worth the naming and affords all the afforesaid 
accommodation." 

A " Description of Nieuw Nederlandt," written 
in 1649, preserved in the Du Simstiere Manuscript, 
gives not only appreciative mention of Long Island 
but a glimpse at the state of its up-growing villages : 
" Long Island, which by its fine situation, noble 
bays and havens, as well as by its fine land, may be 
called the Crown of the Province, is almost entirely 
invaded by them [the English] except at the west- 
ern extremity where are two Dutch villages, 
Breuckelen and Amersfoordt which are not of much 
consequence and a few English \'illages, as Grave- 
sant, Greenwijck, Mespat, where during the war 
the owners were expelled, and since confiscated 
by Governor Stuyvesant, There are not many in- 

^ See Higginson's Short and True Description of the Commodities 
and Discommodities of the Country, 1629, of which the above seems 
a paraphrase. 



38 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

habitants now. Also, Vlissingen, a fine village very 
well stocked with cattle, and fourthly, and lastly, 
Heemsted, better than the others and very rich in 
cattle." 

In 1650 Cornelis van Tienhoven, Secretary of the 
Province, published for the benefit of intending im- 
migrants, " Information relative to taking up land 
in New Netherland." He begins: "At the most 
Easterly corner of Long Island, being a point situ- 
ate on the main ocean enclosing within to the west- 
ward, a large inland sea [Gardiner's Bay] adorned 
with divers fair havens and bays fit for all sorts of 
craft." He speaks in a most clear and practical 
manner of the qualifications of settlers and their 
necessary outfit, of the soil and the possibilities of 
its agricultural development. 

Adraien van der Donck, one of the most learned 
of the Hollanders, Doctor of the Civil and of the 
Canon Laws, came to Nieuw Nederlandt in 1642, as 
Sheriff of Rensselaerwyck. He became the owner 
of large estates and was identified with the most im- 
portant interests of the young colony. After his re- 
turn to Holland, he published in 1656, a most 
interesting " Beschryving van Nieuw Nederlandt." 

He sums up his estimate of the wholesome climate 
by declaring that " The Galens have meagre soup in 
that country." He specially mentions the oysters 
of which he has " seen many in the shell a foot long 
and broad in proportion," adding that their price per 
hundred was but eight or ten stivers.' He speaks of 
a certain " bird of prey which has a head like the head 

' The Dutch stuyver equalled four cents. 



BIRD OR BEE? 39 

of a large cat, and its feathers are a light ash colour." 
But the owl does not interest him as much as " an- 
other small curious bird concerning which there are 
disputations whether it is a bird, or a large West 
India bee. It seeks its nourishment from flowers 
like the bee, and is everywhere seen on the flowers 
regaling itself. It is only seen in the Nieuw Ned- 
erlandt in the season of flowers. In flying they also 
make a humming noise like bees.* They are very 
tender and cannot well be kept alive, but we preserve 
them between paper, dry them in the sun and send 
them as presents to our friends." Primitive tax- 
idermy ! 

In 1644 there was published at London, " A Short 
Discoverie of the Coasts and Continent of America 
from the Equinoctiall Northward, and of the Adja- 
cent Isles. By William Castell, Minister of the 
Gospell at Courtenhall in Northamipstonshire." 
Long Island is there mentioned as an " Isle Chris- 
tian of good note for store of timber and abundant 
fowle and fish. . . . Concerning New Nether- 
land's convenient temperature, the goodness of the 
soile, or commodities which either sea or land afford 
but that in all these respects it dift'ereth not much 
from New-England, only in these four things must 
I give it the precedence, viz. that the land in general 
is richer, the fields more fragrant with flowers, the 
timber larger and more fit for building and shipping, 

' " The Humbird is one of the wonders of the countiy, being no 
bigger than a Hornet, yet having all the Demensions of a Bird, as 
bill and wings with quills, spider-like legges, small claws. For 
colour she is glorious as the Raine-bow." — William Wood, New- 
England's Prospect, 



40 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

the woods fuller of Bevors and the waters of salmon 
and sturgeon." 

Daniel Denton, son of the learned and Reverend 
Richard Denton, pastor of Hempstead, published in 
1670 "A Brief Description of New York," ' which 
gives with great accuracy many minute details of 
Long Island, and more particularly of his own 
Hempstead. 

" The fruits natural to the Island are Mulberries ° 
Posimons ^ Grapes, great and small. Plumbs of sev- 
eral sorts and Strawberries of such abundance, that 
in Spring the fields and woods are died red : which 
the Country people perceiving instantly arm them- 
selves with bottles of wine, cream and sugar and 
instead of a coat of male every one takes a Female 
upon his horse behind him and so rushing violently 
into the fields never leave them until they have dis- 
robed them of their red colours. 

" The greatest part of the Island is very full of 
timber, as oaks white and red, walnut trees, chest- 
nut trees which yield store of mast for swine, as 
also maples, cedars, sarsifrage. Beach, Holly, Hazel 
with many more. The Herbs which the country 
naturally affords are Purslane, white Orage," Egri- 

' A Brief Description of New York, formerly New Netherlands 
with the Places thereunto Adjoining, together with the Manner of its 
Situation, Fertility of the Soyle &^f. Printed for fohn Hancock at 
the first Shop in Pope's Head Alley in Cornhill at the sign of the 
Three Bibles. 

This book was the first description of New York published in 
England. 

^ JMorus rubra. 

' The persimmon tree still lingers on Staten Island and on Bergen 
Point, but has been long unknown on Long Island. 

* A triplex pa tula and/?, arenaria, . 



"STORE OF WHALES AND CRAMPASSESr 4 1 

mony, violets, penniroyal, Alicompane besides Sax- 
aparilla, very common, with many more, yea, in 
May you should see the Woods and Fields so curi- 
ously bedeckt with Roses and an innumerable mul- 
titude of delightful Flowers not only pleasing to the 
eye but smell. That you may behold Nature con- 
tending with Art and striving to equal if not excel 
many Gardens in England. 

" There are divers sorts of singing birds whose 
chirping notes salute the ears of Travellers with 
harmonious discord, and in every pond and brook 
green, silken Frogs who warbling forth their untun'd 
tunes, strive to bear a part in this musicke. 

" On the South-side of Long Island in winter lie 
store of Whales and Crampasses of which the In- 
habitants begin with small boats to make a trade, 
Catching them to their no small benefit. Also an 
innumerable multitude of Seals which make an ex- 
cellent oyle. They lie all winter upon some broken 
Marshes and Beaches, or bars of sand, and might be 
easily got were there some skillful men wdio would 
undertake it." 

Arnoldus Montanus published at Amsterdam in 
1671, De Nicinve en Onbekende Wecreldc, which is 
to some extent a paraphrase of Van der Donck's 
earlier Description of Nieuw Nederlandt. He gives 
but a passing mention to Long Island, saying only : 
"Among the rivers is the Manhattan, or Great 
River, by far the most important, which disem- 
bogues into the Ocean by two wide mouths washing 
the mighty Island of Matouwacs." The book is 
enlivened by grotesque plates representing the fauna 
! of Nieuw Nederlandt, among which are great elks 



42 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

and a huge one-horned horse, while cocoa-nut palms 
are clustered in the background. 

About the same time, John Josselyn, Gentleman, 
in A?i Account of Tzvo Voyages in Neiu-England, 
thus describes the country : " From Connecticut 
River Long Island stretches itself to Mohegan,' one 
hundred and twenty miles, but it is narrow and 
about sixteen miles from the main: the considera- 
blest town upon it is Southampton built on the 
Southside of the Island toward the Eastern end : 
opposite to this on the Northern side is Feversham,^ 
Westward is Ashford," Huntington &c. The Island 
is well stored with sheep and other Cattle and corn, 
and is reasonably populous." 

The Chaplain at Fort James in 1678-9, was the 
Reverend Charles Wolle)^ His brief residence in 
the city was comforted by the excellence of the 
Madeira in official circles. Twenty years later he 
records his impression in a " Two Years' Journey in 
New York and Part of its Territories in America." * 
He pronounces the climate one " of sweet and whole- 
some breath. ... A hilly, woody country full 
of Lakes and great vallies which receptacles are 
nurseries, Forges and Bellows of the air," and 
then follow many curious meteorological specula- 
tions. 

In 1678-9 Long Island was visited by Jasper 

' Montauk Point. 
- Bridgehampton. 
'Setauket. 

* " Printed for John Wyatt at the Rose in St. Paul's Churchyard, 
and Eben Tracy at the Three Bibles on London Bridge, 1 701." 



THE VISIT OF THE LA SADISTS. 43 

Bankers and Peter Sluyter,' who kept a minute 
" Journal of our Voyage to Nieuw Nederlandt, be- 
gun in the name of the Lord and for His Glory." 
After the tedious voyage of that age, they at length 
enter the Narrows, and write, — " As soon as you be- 
gin to approach the land, you see not only woods, 
hills, dales, green fields and plantations, but the 
houses and dwellings of the inhabitants which afford 
a cheerful prospect." 

The travellers received much genial hospitality 
in their leisurely progress among the pleasant 
bouweries of Nieuw Utrecht and Amersfoordt and 
Breuckelen. They dilate upon the Gowanus oysters, 
" large and full, some of them not less than a foot 
long," and greatly enjoy the melons and peaches, — 
" very fine peaches which filled our hearts with 
thankfulness," while "the trees were so laden with 
peaches and other fruit, one might wonder whether 
there were more fruit or leaves." 

' These devout men, natives of Frieslandt, were the emissaries of 
the Labadists, a sect founded in Zealand by Jean de Labadie. A 
native of Bordeaux, educated as a Jesuit priest, the eloquence of this 
accomplished man won, as disciples, many women of noble birth. A 
settlement had been attempted at Surinam, but was soon abandoned. 
Bankers and Sluyter were then sent to seek a suitable spot within the 
former limits of Nieuw Nederlandt. They did not gain many ad- 
herents in New York, but found one zealous friend in Ephraim Her- 
manns, son of Augustyn Hermanns, whose manor of Bohemia 
extended over five thousand acres between the Elk and the Delaware 
Rivers. He gave them a tract of three or four thousand acres in 
Delaware. There a colony was begun, but its inspiration was lost 
after the death in 1722 of Dankers, its leading spirit. It quickly 
dispersed, and soon the name and faith of the Lal^adists, alike, were 
lost. 



44 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

In 1759 the Reverend Andrew Burnaby in his 
" Travels in the Middle Settlements of North 
America," writes as follows : 

" The soil of most parts is extremely good, parti- 
cularly in Long Island. It affords grain of all sorts, 
and a great variety of English fruits, particularly the 
New-town pippin. " Before I left, I took a ride 
upon Long Island, the richest spot in the opinion 
of New Yorkers in all America, and where they 
generally have their villas, or country seats. It is 
indescribably beautiful and some parts of it ex- 
tremely fertile. About fifteen or sixteen miles from 
the west end is a large plain between twenty and 
thirty miles long, and four or five broad. There is 
not a tree grows upon it, and it is asserted there 
never were any. Strangers are always carried to see 
this place as a great curiosity, and the only one of the 
kind in North America." 

Twenty years later, when the dark cloud of war 
overshadowed the land, a young Englishman in the 
Coldstream Guards,' wrote to his friends at home, 
after his arrival in the army of occupation : " New 
York Island is much inferior to Long Island in fer- 
tility and beauty. Long Island is a beautiful spot, 
the soil very good, plenty of game, and everything 
a fine country can afford. In time of peace it must 
be a perfect Paradise." 

' George Matthews, under date August 4, 1779. 



III. 



THE INDIANS ON LONG ISLAND. 

THE Island which under many names and diverse 
flags was to bear so significant a part in the 
stirring drama of American colonisation had 
been not less a disputed possession among con- 
tending Indians. The Atlantic border of the United 
States was inhabited by the great Lenni-Lenape ' 
race, divided into many tribes and clans. Of these, 
the Mohicans were at once the most powerful, and 
the most amenable to civilisation. Before the influ- 
ence of the European settlements, many of the 
tribes had advanced from savagery to at least the 
first stage of barbarism. 

The Indians of Long Island were a seafaring 
race, mild in temperament, diligent in the pursuits 
determined by their environment, skilled in manage- 



' The Lenni-Lenapi, or " Original People," believed themselves 
auctothones. Among them the Algonquin, or " Men of the East," 
w^ho included the Long Island Indians, were called the " Eldest 
Sons of their Grandfather." 

45 



46 EARL Y LONG ISLAND. 

ment of canoe,' of seine, or spear,'' and dextrous in 
the making of seawan, or wampum. From the 
pyrula and scallop shells strewing the smooth shores 
of the Great South Bay, and the hundred indenta- 
tions of its coast. Long Island received its name of 
Seawanhacky,' or Land of Shells, the name used by 
the Indians of the mainland in preference to the 
Matouwacks recorded in early maps and narratives, 
or the rarer Paumanacke.* 

The Indian tribes were not well differentiated by 
the first historians of the New World, and their 
carelessness has made any exact classification since 
impossible. Names of persons and places are dupli- 
cated, or used in direct contradiction, and one can 
but collect and collate, rather than determine the 
value of any early names. 

' Their canoes were often of great size and admirable workman- 
ship. John Winthrop writes in his Journal, October 2, 1633 : " The 
Bark Blessing which was sent to the southward returned. She had 
been at an Island over against Connecticot which is called Long 
Island, because it is near fifty leagues long. The east part is about 
ten leagues from the main, but the west end not a mile. There they 
had great store of the best Wampumpeak both white and blue. They 
have many canoes, so great as one will carry eighty men." — History 
of Neiv England, vol. i., p. 133. 

■^ The spearing of fish was done by torchlight, a process called 
" wigwass." 

^ Or, more seldom, Womponomon, a name of the same meaning. 

* Paumanacke appears in the Indian Deed to Easthampton, 1648. 
William Hubbard, Minister of Ipswick, in his History of New Eng- 
land, ibTj, gives the spelling, Matamwacke. It is also written 
Matamwacks, Matouwacke, Matouvvax, and, by Van der Donck, 
Metodac. The name has been fitly analysed as Afatan, very good, 
and acke, place, or land, an etymology which confirms itself. Roger 
Williams gives the name as Meteanhock, meaning periwinkle. 



THE MANHATTANS. 47 

Adrian Block tells us that he was sheltered and 
fed by " the Manhattans of Long Island." De 
Razieres says of Long Island in 1627 that it is "in- 
habited by the old Manhattans." Van der Donck 
writes : '' With the Manhattans we include those 
who live in the neighbouring places, along the North 
River, on Long Island and at the Neversinks." But 
we must remember that the Indian Manhattan was 
no tribal designation, but a descriptive term express- 
ing supreme excellence.' 

More than a dozen tribes have left their names 
scattered over the Island, but until conquered by 
the dreaded Pequots,* the Montauks were perhaps 
the most powerful of them all. Though exercising 
no exact hegemony, many of the sub-tribes, or 
clans, were in a measure subject to them. As the 
natives of the eastern part of the island were tribu- 
tary to the Connecticut Indians, so were those of 
the western to the Iroquois of the Hudson River, a 
tribute partly paid in dried clams. After the settle- 
ment of Nieuw Amsterdam, the Dutch persuaded 
the Canarsies to forego this payment, an omission 
which brought upon the doomed race many a mur- 
derous raid from the powerful Mohawks. After the 
Pequot War, the Montauks transferred their alle- 

' The best received etymology, as opposed even to Schoolcraft's 
Mon-a-tan, " People of the Whirlpool," and the frequent reference 
of Monados — Manatees — to the Spanish Monados, Drunken Men, 
in reference to the carousals at Hudson's visit. 

^ " The insolent and barbarous nation called the Pequots." — Cap- 
tain John Underhill, in Nevves from America. 

" A more fierce and cruel and warlike people than the rest of the 
Indians." — Hubbard's Indian Wars. 



48 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

giance to the victorious English, paying them the 
same tribute and claiming their protection.' 

As far as can be determined, the chief tribes were 
established nearly as follows : In the southwest part 
of the island the Canarsies spread over Kings County 
and a part of Jamaica, with their centre near Flat- 
lands. The Rockaway Indians belonged to Hemp- 
stead Plains, scattered over both the Great and the 
Little Plains, and extending northwest into New- 
town, where the Mespat Indians were a bi'anch of 
the same tribe. Their name, in many old deeds 
given as Rechquaakie, is a corruption of Rokana- 
wahaka, — "Our Place of the Laughing Waters." 
The Merikoke, or Meroke, were along the shore 
from Rockaway to South Oyster Bay, and their 
name survives in the hamlet of Merricks. 

The Massapequas extended from Fort Neck east- 
ward to Islip. Under constant fear of attack from 
their more warlike neighbours, the Indians at each 
end of the Island had built at Fort Neck, and at 
Fort Pond, or Konkhongauk, a place of refuge capa- 
ble of holding five hundred men. The stronghold 
of the Massapequas was demolished in 1653, by 

'August, 1637, Richard Davenport writes to John Winthrop : 
" Capt. Stoughton is gone a weeke since to Coneticutt Plantations & 
I heare that the Sachem of Long Island doe now wayt for him with 
their tribute at the river-mouth." — Massachusetts Hist. Coll., Series 
v., vol. i., p. 249. 

July 3, 1638, Roger Ludlow, first Deputy Governor of Connecticut, 
writes to John Winthrop : " The Indians of Longe Island are tribu- 
taries to yo'selues and vs, by agree™', vnder hand made by Capt. 
Stoughton the last suifier : they are to paye twoe pts to your one pt 
to vs." — Ibid., p. 261. 



DISTRIBUTION OF TRIBES. 49 

Captain John Underbill, in the only great Indian 
battle ever fought on Long Island. Until very 
lately the remains of a quadrangular structure, its 
sides ninety feet in length, were distinctly to be 
traced. In the Bay near by, is Squaw Island, where 
the women and children were sent during the battle. 
Earthworks enclosing nearly an acre, v/here was the 
burial-ground of the chieftains, may also be traced 
about Fort Pond, although the site of the fort is 
obscured by forest growth. 

The Patchogue (Porchaug) and the Shinnecock 
Indians, though with no well-defined territorial 
limits, belong to the South Shore, from Islip to 
Easthampton. Canoe Place — Merosuck,' was the 
portage between the Great Peconic and the Shinne- 
cock Bays, a narrow isthmus, formerly the open 
channel between two adjacent islands of the once 
" Gebrokne Landt." Beyond them were the Mon- 
tauks,° of whom, and of the Shinnecocks, a poor 
remnant still remains. 

On the north side of the island the Martinecocks 
extended along the Sound from Newtown to Smith- 
town, but even before European intrusion, the tribe 

^ Traces still remain of the canal opened by Mongotucksee — Long 
Knife, Chief of the Mohawks. 

^ Montauk is sometimes wrongly considered a corruption of Matou- 
wacks. It has also been referred to Mintuck, a tree, as the region 
was once thickly wooded. Its original form was Montaukett, ett being 
a common Algonquin suffix. It is not a tribal name, but purely 
topographical. Our highest Indian authority, the scholarly Mr. 
Trumbull, gives it as a form of Manatuck, which throughout New 
England means a " Lookout," or high point of land. In the Indian 
deed to Theophilus Eaton and Edward Hopkins, April 29. 1648, the 
grant of Easthampton is to the " East side of Mountacutt high-land." 
4 



50 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

was greatly reduced. In 1650 Secretary van Tien- 
hoven reported but fifty families left of this once 
powerful clan. The Nessaquagues were between 
Stony Brook and the beautiful tidal river which still 
retains their name. The Setaukets (Sealtacots) 
spread over the hills and dells of northern Brook- 
haven ; eastward were the Corchaug, a name per- 
verted into Cutchogue, and on Shelter Island the 
Manhasset tribe was established. 

As has been said, Seawanhacky was the great 
centre of wampum-making. Wampum was the com- 
mon currency of the Indians east of the Mississippi. 
The superior excellence of that made on Long 
Island is more than once mentioned in Winthrop's 
Journal. The black wampum, or, suckahock was 
made from the purple part of the quahaug shell,' 
and was twice the value of the white metahock, one 
bead of which was the equivalent of an English 
farthing. Chaplain Wolley, already quoted, speaks 
of the " wampum, or seawant, made of a kind of 
cockle, or periwinkle, of which there is scarce any 
but at Oyster Bay." This is a false limitation, for 
on the northern shores of the Sound, the nearly 
allied Narragansetts had been for fifty years busy in 
its manufacture.'* 

' The quahaug, or whelk, was the Buccinuni undiilatuni. As that 
became rare, the common clam, Venus mercenaria, was used. The 
white wampum was made from the periwinkle, Turbo littoreiis. The 
heads were from three sixteenths to three eighths of an inch in 
length, and one-eighth of an inch in thickness. 

'^ William Wood speaks of the Narragansetts as " curious minters 
of wompompeage which they formed out of the inmost wreaths of 
periwinkle shels. The Northerne, Easterne, and Westerne Indians 
fetche all their Coyne from these Southerne Mint-Masters." 



WAMPUM MAKING. 5 1 

Wampum was introduced into New England, in 
1627, by Isaac de Razieres Ambassador from Nieuw 
Nederiandt to Governor Winslow. Hubbard con- 
sidered its use the immediate cause of the Indian 
wars, and regarded it as the direct root of all evil. 

In 1641 a city ordinance of the Director-General 
Kieft deplores the depreciation of this primitive 
currency : " A great deal of bad seawant, n^sty 
rough things imported from other places," was in 
circulation, while " the good, splendid Seawant was 
out of sight, or exported," which must cause the 
ruin of the country. A little later, Secretary van 
Tienhoven writes of Montauk ' Point as " well 
adapted to secure the trade in wampum, the mine 
of Nieuw Nederiandt," since, " in and about the 
large inland sea lie cockles whereof wampum is 
made, from which great profit could be realised by 
those who would thereby plant a colony, or hamlet 
on the aforesaid hook." Wampum continued to be 
used by even the Dutch and English throughout the 
seventeenth century, and was the great medium of 
exchange in the fur trade with the Iroquois. It was 
made on Long Island for exportation to the far 
West, until 1830, or later. 

It is never an inspiring subject, nor conducive to 
complacent pride of race, to consider our dealings 
with the aborigines, be it in those ancestral days, or 
in the present "Century of Dishonour." The Long 
Island Indians seem to have given as much for as 
little, as any of their brethren, while the one 
inference from old records and traditions, points to 

' In his Bi'denckinge Nieuw Nederiandt, written in 1650. 



52 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

their harmless character and friendly relations with 
the new-comers, unless when goaded to self-defence, 
or, frenzied by the fire-water of the Europeans. 

There is much early legislation on this matter and 
the settlers finally learned the evil they had wrought. 
The subjoined extract from the yellowed pages of 
the old Town-Book of Jamaica, may be the first 
prohibition law. It is one of many similar enact- 
ments in the several towns under both English and 
Dutch jurisdiction. 

" Feby ye 27. 1658. 

" This day voted and agreed upon by this town of 
Rusdorp that noe person or persons whatsoever, shall 
sell, or give, directly or indirectly, to any Indian, 
or Indians whatsoever, within or about ye saide 
town of Rusdorp, any stronge licker or stronge 
drinke whatsoever, either much or little, more or 
lesse, under forfeit of fifty guilders' for every 
offense." 

The bargains made with the Indians, here, as else- 
where, were absurdly, often piteously, one-sided. 
The land transfers would seem a mere farce were there 
not involved a more serious, an almost tragical, 
element. One's blood may well tingle as he looks 
over some musty parchment signed with curious 
hieroglyphics, the marks of a Tackapousha,* or a 
Wantagh,' in which domains greater than an English 
dukedom, or a German principality, are alienated for 
a mere mess of pottage. In the deed for the south 

' The guilders of Holland equalled forty cents. 
' Sachem of the Massapequas. 
* Sachem of the Merokes. 



PECULIAR PERILS. 53 

part of the town of Oyster Bay, the Indians reserve 
the privilege of " hunting and gathering huckle- 
berries as they shall see cause." It is to be hoped 
they were unmolested in the enjoyment of these 
inherited and natural rights. In the last Indian 
grant made in Flushing, the sachem claims for his 
tribe the right of cutting bulrushes " for ever." 
Even the good knight Lion Gardiner felt he was pay 
ing an honest price for his island manor when he 
bought it of Wyandanch for " one large black dog, 
one gun, some powder and shot, some rum and a 
pair of blankets." The transaction was no doubt 
mutually satisfactory, for the sachem remained his 
firm friend, and after Gardiner's chivalrous rescue of 
his daughter,' Wyandanch's gratitude expressed it- 
self in the gift of nearly the entire territory which was 
later known as Smithfield, and finally as Smithtown. 
The Long Island Indians were between the upper 
and the nether millstone of the more warlike tribes 
of Connecticut and of the Hudson Valley. Any 
hostile action always could be traced to outside in- 
fluence. Nor were the Dutch always as unaggres- 
sive as might be expected from their superficial 
stolor. During the administration of the Director- 
General Kieft, a man at once timid and cruel, mak- 
ing the usual use of a little brief authority, both the 
settlers and the Indians were irritated to the last 
degree. It is undeniable that in every case the 
Indian difficulties were precipitated, directly or 
indirectly, by him. 

' Wuchikittawbut, stolen on her wedding day by Ninigret, Chief of 
the Narragansetts. 



54 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

A series of onslaughts were begun, which could 
not be at once controlled even by the firm rule of 
Peter Stuyvesant, who, loth to let the sword which 
had done good work at St. Martin's, rust in its scab- 
bard, and ever ready to fight intruding English or 
Swedes, was always considerate towards the Indians. 
This wise forbearance subjected him to much malig- 
nant misinterpretation. Writing of the Indian mas- 
sacres, the Clarendon Papers accuse him of having 
" hired the Mohocks and other Highland Indians to 
Cut off and Massacre all the English that were in 
those Pt^^ So the English that were vppon the 
Pt^ of Long Isl : Which hee claimed to be vnder 
his gouerm^ were necessitated all of them to leave 
their labours and to stand vppon their guardes day 
& night for fear of being exposed to barbarous cru- 
eltie, or Dutch treacherie." 

After the ruthless slaughter at Pavonia, there was 
a general uprising of avenging tribes from the Rari- 
tan to the Housatonic. With them were the here- 
tofore friendly Mespat Indians of the North Side, 
already threatened by the Dutch. " The Christians 
residing upon Long Island " then petitioned ' to be 
allowed to " Attack and slay the Indians there- 
about, which was refused, " as these especially have 
done us no harm and shewed us every friendship." 
The attack upon Mespat Kills followed, breaking 
up and scattering the first settlement within the 
bounds of Newtown, 

Roger Williams, coming to Nieuw Amsterdam to 
take ship for England, brought about a friendly 
conference at Rockaway. Three hundred warriors 

1 February 27, 1643. 



VAN DER HYL\S CAMPAIGN. 55 

and sixteen chiefs, under the lead of Pennawitz, 
sachem of the Canarsies, there met the Dutch 
commissioners in solemn powwow. The Dutch 
spokesman, De Vries, invited the Indians to Fort 
Amsterdam, where a treaty was concluded, March 
25, 1643. It was quite time for peace, but the truce 
was brief. Six months later " The Eight Men " of 
Heemstede addressed the States General, saying : 
" Long Island is destitute of Inhabitants and stock 
except a few unimportant places over against the 
main which are about to be abandoned." 

The Dutch, now thoroughly aroused, went against 
the Canarsies with the avowed purpose to extermi- 
nate the tribe. As leader of the force was their 
new captain, John Underhill, the Van der Hyl of 
the Dutch records. One hundred and twenty In- 
dian braves were killed, palisaded forts torn down, 
maize fields destroyed, villages desolated. Yet, 
when a few years later, in a hostile league of the 
New Jersey and the River Indians against Nieuw 
Amsterdam, a war party crossed to Gravesend and 
threatened the English villages, the Canarsies, with 
rare magnanimity, refused to join them. 

Their good faith availed little for the doomed race. 
In 1671, Daniel Denton writes of their decrease with 
pious exultation : " Since my time there were six 
towns now reduced to two small villages, and it 
hath been generally observed that where the Eng- 
lish came to settle, a Divine Hand makes way for 
them, by cutting off the Indians either by wars one 
with the other, or by some raging mortal disease." ' 

* In 1658 nearly one half the Montauk tribe perished from small- 
pox. 



56 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

On the death of Wyandanch, in 1659, the Mon- 
tauks became for a time tributary to the Narragan- 
setts/ After a century of varying fortunes, the 
tribe gradually wasting away, in 1764 a petition is 
addressed to Lieutenant-Governor Golden by Silas 
Gharles, " In behalf of himself and the Montauk 
Tribe of Indians." After recalling the generous 
grants made to the English by his ancestors, the 
memorial goes on : " Of late years, these Indians 
have discontinued their ancient Barbarous way of 
living and have become not only civilised but Ghris- 
tianised, and are peaceable and orderly, and are will- 
ing to behave as good subjects to his Majesty, King 
George, the third, and his heirs and successors, to 
do the Dutys, bear the Burdens and be intitled to 
the Rights and Privileges of faithful Subjects. 

"That such a Change of Manners, as it exposes 
them to a life of Labour must introduce an at- 
tachment to Property without which they cannot 
subsist. 

"That they are exposed to, and suffer great In- 
convenience from the Contempt shown to the 
Indian Tribes by their English Neighbours at East- 
Hampton, who deny them necessary Fuel, and con- 
tinually encroach upon their Occupations by fencing 
in more and more of the Indians' Lands under Pre- 
tence of Sale made by their Ancestors. 

" That your Petitioner and his Associates are in 
Danger of being crowded out of all their Ancient 

' Roger Williams refers the trouble between these tribes to the 
pride of the rival sachems : " He of Montaukett was proud and 
foolish, — ^he of Narragansett was proud and fierce." 



A MONTA UK PETITION. 57 

Inheritance, and of being rendered Vagabonds upon 
the Face of the Earth." 

Thus it proceeds. An appeal is made to the 
justice of the Crown, to confirm to them all unsold 
lands between Sag Harbour and Montauk Point. 
The Attorney General, John Tabor Kempe, made a 
temporising answer, and the Indians are advised by 
the Council to apply to the Court of Chancery ! It 
is a typical story. 

Early in the settlement of the Colony various 
efforts had been made for the uplifting of the 
Indians. At the beginning of his administration, 
Lord Lovelace had imported a printing press to 
publish a catechism and some chapters of the Bible, 
translated into the Montauk tongue by the Rever- 
end Thomas James, first minister of Easthampton. 
About 1740 the Reverend Azariah Horton, came 
to the Montauks, as a Missioner from Connecticut. 
He made many converts but complained sadly of 
their speedy lapses to drunkenness and idolatry. In 
1755 Sampson Occum, a Mohican, educated at 
Lebanon, Connecticut, established a school among 
the Montauks. After ten years of varying success, 
he gave up the effort to accomplish any lasting 
good.' He went to England, and there became a 

' He says there was, " In 1741, a general reformation among these 
Indians and they renounced all their heathenish idolatry and super- 
stition and many of them became true Christiana in a judgment of 
charity. Many of them can read, write, and cypher well, and they 
have had gospel ministers to teach them from that time to this 
[1761] ; but they are not so zealous in religion now, as they were 
some years ago." He gives a census, enumerating the " total souls, 
162." — Mass. His. Coll., Series I., vol. x. 



58 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

protege of Lady Huntingdon. He excited much 
sentimental sympathy, but Httle practical interest, 
for, " even the Bishops," he complains, " never gave 
one single brass farthing " to aid his work on Long 
Island. He aspired to be a versifier, and wrote 
several well-known hymns, among them, the one 
beginning: " Awak'd by Sinai's awful sound." 

Occum returned to America to settle among the 
Oneidas where he was followed by many of the 
Montauks. Two of his earlier Long Island pupils, 
David and Jacob Fowler, became teachers among 
them. After the Revolution, they, with other 
Mohican fragments, combined as the Brothertown 
Indians. In 1813 the Legislature of New York 
set apart for them, under that name, a tract of land 
to be held as a perpetual reservation. 

> The Montauks remaining on Long Island have 
dwindled until probably not one of pure blood now 
remains, but a form of tribal organisation was pre- 
served far into the present century. They retained 
their hereditary chiefs, a dynasty of self-styled 
" Pharaohs," until the royal line became extinct by 
the death, in 1832, at Poospatuck, near Moriches, of 
the Squa-sachem, the Queen, Elizabeth Joe. 

A little after the sojourn of Sampson Occum 
among the Montauks, Paul Cuffee, a Shinnecock 
Indian, said to have been a man of great eloquence 
and native power, preached to his tribe. By his 
endeavour, an Indian meeting-house was built near 
Canoe Place. There he was buried, and a simple 
stone shaft records his excellences. On the Shinne- 
cock Reservation are now about two hundred of 



LAST OF THE RACE. 59 

the tribe' last survivors of the Long Island Indians,'"' 
but much degraded by negro admixture. They 
support a church and a school, attempt to practise 
the habits of civilised life, and have lost even the 
traditions of their forefathers, while their language 
has been for a century dead, and their racial pride 
long extinct. 

Near the northern shore of Peconic Bay, stands 
an old pine, scorched and shattered by lightning, 
bleached by the salt sea-wind, twisted and torn by 
tempest, yet with a few persistently green branches 
flung out to the ocean breeze. An alien there it 
seems, and the whistling wind chants the requiem 
of a by-gone forest. But the lonely tree is the sug- 
gestion and the mourner of more than the dead 
conifers. It has outlived its contemporary sachems, 
and when it falls, the last of their race may have 
gone from the land of their birthright. 

' The Reservation covers the land formerly held in common, 
between Canoe Place and the Shinnecock Hills. In 1703 it was 
deeded to the town of Southhampton by the Indian sachems, and the 
same day was leased by the town to the Shinnecocks for one thousand 
years at a yearly rent of one ear of Indian corn. 

^ The last Shinnecock of pure blood, Daniel , died in October, 

1894. 




IV. 



A STUDY OF NAMES. 



SICILY, from prehistoric times the meeting- 
point and battleground of Aryan and Semite, 
of diverse nations contending for the mastery 
of the Mediterranean, gives in its geographical 
names, not less surely than to the spade of the 
archaeologist, a clue to some of the most profound 
problems of race and of language. 

So, also, the names of Long Island possess a value 
of more than passing interest, faithfully recording as 
they do, the successive conditions of a varied civili- 
sation, Indian, Dutch, and English, of which her nar- 
row territory has been the scene. Many names 
have been lost, or obscured by time ; many super- 
ceded by the creations of a false taste, but enough 
remain, not only to preserve a lingering echo of the 
sonorous Indian speech, and to stamp upon the land 
the names, the faith, or the ideals of her early set- 
tlers, but like the fragmentary bone from which an 
extinct saurian can be reconstructed and classed, to 
give curious insight into the simple life of those 
early times. 

60 



AUTOCHTHONIC NAMES. 6 1 

Like Topsy, the names " grew," so naturally are 
they the outcome of place and circumstance. In 
many of them there is a frankness which does not 
admit a doubt as to their fitness, as in Littleworth, 
or Wastelands, Hard Scrabble, or Hungry Harbour, 
while there is an unconscious confession in the fact 
that Good Ground could become a proper name. 
Half-way-Hollow Hills, Stony Brook, Shelter Island,' 
and Old Fields, Cold Spring and Flatlands, Wading 
River, Black Stump, and Apple-tree Neck are names 
of the sort which may be said never to have been 
given. The entire system of common pasturage 
upon the Necks, to regulate which was the effort of 
so much of the early town legislation, is shown by 
the re-duplicated names — Cow Neck, Horse Neck, 
Hog Island. Baiting Hollow tells of the necessity 
of early travel, while Bread-and-Cheese Hollow, and 
Dumpling Hollow preserve incidents in the famous 
progress of Richard the Bull-rider, which secured for 
the shrewd Major and his descendants the broad 
domain of Smithtown. Canoe Place was an Indian 
portage, and Fireplace '^ a favourite camping ground. 
Later, it became South Haven ^ and the little creek 

^ Manhansackaha-quasha-warnock, its Indian name, signified an 
island sheltered by other islands. 

^ Another Fireplace is on the Island opposite Gardiner's Island. 
There, in a hollowed rock by the seashore, a fire was made by one 
seeking passage to the smaller island, whence the rising smoke would 
summon the ferryman. 

3 In the New York Mercury of February 20, 1758, is this announce- 
ment : 

"For the Information of the Publick. Notice is hereby given 
that the Place formerly called Setaucut South (otherwise the Fire- 
place) which lies on the South Side of Long Island opposite the 



62 EARLY LOMG ISLAND. 

was bolstered into dignity as the East Connecticut 
River, marking the long struggle through which the 
emigrants from the Puritan Colony strove to main- 
tain their connection with the region whose institu- 
tions had left on them so deep an impress.' 

The Indians left on their dear Seawanhacky many 
names of picturesque suggestion, which have sur- 
vived in more or less purity. In many cases, how- 
ever, they are so changed as to indicate nothing of 
their true origin. It was a too frequent custom to 
substitute for an Indian name of absolute fitness, an 
English word resembling it in sound, but in signifi- 
cance, often grotesquely inappropriate. Wainscott 
suggests little of Wayumscutt. This tendency is 
notable in the name Jamaica. The oldest entries in 
the Town Books often speak of " Ye bever-pond 
commonly called Jemaco." In the Mohican tongue, 
' Amique,' meaning beaver, was aspirated, as if 
written Jamique. By careless spelling its form 
Jameco was soon interchangeable with the name of 
the West Indian island which Admiral Penn had 
taken from the Spaniards in 1655, and the town was 
sometimes called New Jamaica. 

Glen Cove was until within the present generation, 
known as Mosquito Cove, — a most misleading and 
slanderous name ; for the " Mosquito " is a variation 
of Muscota, or Moscheto, in many Indian dialects 

Town of Bridgehampto7i, that the New Parish thereon lately erected 
whereof the Reverend Mr. Abner Reeves is Minister, has by a 
General Vote at the last Town Meeting obtained the name of South 
Haven which new name they are desired to remember in all Letters 
directed to these Parts for the Future." 

' Or possibly, the Indian name of Conetquot was thus changed. 



SYLLABIC SURVIVALS. 63 

signifying a grassy flat, subject to overflow. With 
that meaning, it was the native name of Harlem, 
and it has an honoured survival in Musketaquid, the 
'* grass-drowned river" of Concord. 

The beautiful Success Pond, where tulip trees and 
liquidambar, with a luxuriant undergrowth entangled 
with wild grape and green-briar, are mirrored in the 
clear water, bears a name which has grown so far 
away from the Indian Sacet, that a fisherman's 
legend has been invented for its explanation. Not 
even this perverted form will much longer suggest 
the lost original, for the entire region, beautiful 
mere and stately forest, scattered farmsteads and old 
Dutch church, is now known as — Lakeville. 

The melodious Sonasset is entirely lost, and the 
topographical fitness of Drown Meadow, which 
replaced it, is usurped by the commonplace Port 
Jefferson. In some instances, but a single syllable 
survives. Towd and Cobb are the names of districts 
in Southhampton. The stately sounding Saga- 
bonack is shortened to Sagg, and even this brief 
fragment loses a letter in Sag Harbour. Saga- 
bonack, the Place-of-the-Ground-Nut, Sagabon being 
the Indian name of the Apios tuberosa, is of peculiar 
interest from the importance which the starchy 
tubers ' held in the simple economy of the natives. 

' Thoreau describes tubers dug September 30th, as follov/s : 
" One string weighed a little more than three-quarters of a pound, 
the biggest were two and two-third inches in circumference, the 
smallest way. It is but a slender vine now killed by the frost, and 
not promising such a yield, but deep in the soil, here sand, five or six 
inches, or sometimes a foot, you come to the string of brown and 
commonly knotty nuts. The cuticle of the tuber is more or less 



64 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

This " princely ground-nut," as Josselyn calls it, was, 
in seasons of scarcity, a not inconsiderable article of 
food.' The Town Laws of Southhampton, in 1654, 
ordained that if an Indian dug ground-nuts on land 
occupied by the English, he was to be set in the 
stocks, and for a second offence whipped. 

Mr. Trumbull gives pert {pin, pon, bun) as the 
generic term for any tuber or bulb, and the ground- 
nut was also known as Penak. Acabonac, on 
Gardiner's Bay, signified " a root-place." Ketcha- 
ponock, on Shinnecock Bay, was the " Place of the 
largest roots," which may have been those of the 
yellow water-lily, NupJiar advena. Sabonac, near 
Mastic, and Sebonack, a neck on Peconic Bay, were 
names meaning a large ground-nut place. Sepon 
was used for the bulb of the wild meadow-lily, 

cracked longitudinally, forming meridional farrows, and the root or 
shoot bears a large proportion to the tuber." — Autumn, p. 40. 

' Kalm writes thus in Delaware : " Hopniss was the Indian name 
of a wild plant which the Swedes still call by that name. The roots 
resemble small potatoes and were boiled by the Indians who eat them 
instead of bread, as do some of the English. Mr. Bartram told me 
that the Indians who live farther in the country, not only do eat these 
roots which are equal in goodness to potatoes, but likewise take the 
pease which ly in the pods of the plant and prepare them like com- 
mon pease. Dr. Linsenus calls the plant — Glycene apios." — Travels 
in North America, vol. ii. , p. 96. 

Ground-nuts and acorns were almost the only food of Hertel de 
Rouville's captives in their dread march from Deerfield. So im- 
portant on article of food was the ground-nut to the migratory 
Indians, that it is claimed a special clan, the Potato Clan (meaning 
"Indian Potato" or Glycene apois, L., Apios tuberosa, Mcench.) 
M'as added to the Iroquois confederacy. See N. Y. Colonial Docu- 
ments, vol. ix., p. 47. But Mr. Parkman says that if such a clan did 
exist, it was small and unimportant. 



HET-WAALE-BOGHT. 65 

Lilium Canadense, which Thoreau's Indian guide in 
the Maine woods told him was " good for soup, 
good to boil with meat to thicken the water." 
Tuckahoe, near Southhampton village, was named 
from a subterranean fungus, Pachyma cocos the, 
" Indian Loaf." 

No Long Island name is more puzzling and elusive 
than Gowanus. On good authority it is said to be 
a contraction of Rechgawanes, a name somewhat 
vaguely applied to the entire shore of the East 
River. The Dutch " Gouwe," a bay, has suggested 
a possible etymology, and Gowan's Cove, another 
line of inquiry, while of its varied spellings ' some, 
as Guanas, or the Gujanes, have a Spanish flavour. 

With the Indian names indigenous to the soil, 
is a series of later growth, indicating the various 
steps in the settlement of the Island. Wallabout — 
*' Het-Waale-Boght," the Walloons' Bay, more 
memorable now, since its shifting sands were the 
insufficient sepulchre of ten thousand soldiers dying 
in the Prison Ships — is the only name remaining 
from the thrifty little Huguenot settlements in the 
first decade of Dutch colonisation. It does not sig- 
nify " from the Waale " as often translated, but may 
be rendered " the Foreigners' Bay ".^ So the Dutch 
called the Gallic inhabitants of Hainault, Namur, 
and Luxemburgh, Gallois becoming to them 

' Botta, in his History of the War of Independence, speaks of the 
" Heights of Guan." Other forms of the name are Goujanes ; 
Guijanes ; Gawanes ; Gouwanos ; Gowones ; Gujanes. 

^ Yet so good an antiquarian as the late Mr. Teunis Bergen, him- 
self of Huguenot descent, gave its meaning as simply " The Head of 

the Cove." 
5 



66 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

Waalsche, whence Walloon. Lineal descendants of 
the Belgii who defied Caesar, there was a cool 
persistent temperament quite opposed to that of 
the Gauls of purely Keltic blood, a temperament 
which, allied with Dutch sturdiness, gave a basis for 
character not to be surpassed. 

But this one Huguenot territorial name remains, 
nor are the Dutch much better represented on the 
Island which they discovered and first planted, 
while there are not a few names which appear to 
claim a twofold origin. The hamlet which grew up 
near the Waale-Boght, was Markwyck, the market- 
village, and yet the name was not impossibly an 
adaptation of the Indian Marekkawieck.* Of " The 
Five Dutch Towns," Boswijck, Breuckelen, Vlachte- 
bos, and Nieuw Utrecht retain their original names. 
'T Oost-wout, — the East Woods, became, as cleared 
of its heavy forest growth, " the New Lots." 'T Kreu- 
pel Bosch, earliest settled point in " the New Town," 
a coppice of scrub-oaks, was shortened into Cripple- 
bush. Roede Hoeck and Gheele Hoeck have been 
translated into English, while Domine's Hoeck has 
entirely lost its name. The southern point of Roede 
Hoeck was called Boomties Hoeck, or Tree Point. 
It is now known as Bombay Hook, the meaningless 
distortion of a once significant name. 

When the ease-loving Wouter Van Twiller, in 
1637, bought for his favourite bouwerie, the pleasant 
Nutten Eylandt ° to which the cows were driven at 

' Pieter Monfort, in 1643, took out a patent at the W^aale-Boght, 
for land described as a " Tobacco Plantation lying on Long Island 
at the bend of Meyrechtkawick." 

^ Nut Island, in Indian, Poggank, perhaps from Pecanuc, the 
Algonquin for forest tree. 



DR. SAMUEL LATHAM MITCHELL. 6y 

low tide across the shallow Buttermilk Channel sep- 
arating it from Breuckelen, its sylvan name was lost, 
and people began to speak of the Governor's Island. 
Wolver's Hollow has gone through a somewhat 
curious change of name. When, in 1650, the Eng- 
lish and the Dutch Commissioners established the 
boundary line of Nieuw Nederlandt at the west side 
of Oyster Bay, the Dutch, to make good their claim, 
at once began the hamlet first called " Beaver Swamp 
Hollow." Shortly after, Captain Underbill named 
it, for his mother's English home, Wolverhampton 
Hollow, which was soon shortened into Wolver 
Hollow, in supposed reference to the gray prowler of 
the forest, whose stealthy tread was not infrequent 
in the dark thickets of the North Side ravines. 

Other and fairer suggestions there are : Dosoris 
(Dos-uxoris) keeps green the memory of Abigail 
Taylor whose rich dowry brought to the Reverend 
BenjaminWoolsey the estate so named. In Plandome, 
the learned and eccentric Dr. Mitchell ' attempted 

' Samuel Latham Mitchell was born in 1764, and died in 1830, 
after a life of great and varied intellectual activity. Educated at 
the University of Edinburgh, he was the classmate of Sir James 
Mackintosh and of Thomas Addis Emmet. Professor of Applied 
Chemistry in Columbia College, he first introduced in America, 
Lavoisier's new system. He was physician at the New York Hospi- 
tal for a long term of service. His various monographs in Medicine 
and Physics were of lasting value. His ingenious theory of Septon, 
and of Septic acid, says Dr. Francis, gave impetus to the chemical 
researches of Sir Humphry Davy. But Geology and Zoology were 
the favourite studies of this correspondent of Cuvier. "Show me a 
scale, and I will point out the fish," he often said. In 1796, he 
explored the valleys of the Hudson and the Mohawk, later making 
tours of careful scientific investigation through Canada and the 
Valley of the Mississippi. 

He was a United States Senator in 1808, and with Jefferson, first 



6S EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

a bi-lingual tribute to his pleasant home, Maidstone 
and Islip betray the longing for the old weald of 
Kent and the ancestral seats of Northamptonshire, 
while Hempstead and the various Hamptons 
express the thought always dominant with the 
Anglo-Saxon settler, of making, in the New World, 
a new home. Often, the name will indicate the time 
of discovery, or of settlement, as Cromwell Bay 
antedates the Restoration ; or, as in Jericho, 
Jerusalem, and Mount Sinai, the Church affiliation 
of the immigrants is shown. 

On the northern curve of the Suffolk shore, 
are two headlands with names of disputed origin. 
But Culloden Point preserves the fact that in the 
great storm of January, 1781, the Culloden, an Eng- 
lish ship in pursuit of the French fleet off Rhode 
Island, was there driven ashore and dashed to pieces. 
It has been also suggested that, during the colonial 
period of brisk trade with the West Indies, the abrupt 
ascent of Mount Misery took its name from the extinct 
volcano which rises four thousand feet above the sea, 
at the northwestern corner of St. Christopher's, and 
with which Long Island seamen were familiar. 

examined the mammoth's bones brought from the Great Bone Lick. 
John Randolph called him the " Congressional Library." Cobbett, 
for some years resident in the Ludlow mansion at Hyde Park, said 
of him : "A man more full of knowledge and less conscious of it, I 
never saw." A serious student, he was still oneoi the most versatile 
of men and amused himself with many excursive fancies. His geo- 
logic insight recognising America as the older world, he wrote of the 
Onondaga Valley as a possible site of the Garden of Eden. On the 
completion of the Erie Canal, it was Dr. Mitchell who gave the 
address, November 4, 1825, at the " Introduction of the Lady of the 
Lake, to her Spouse, the Lord of the Ocean." j 



CHANGES OF NAME. 



69 



So, here and there, throughout the Island, are 
many names rich in historic or linguistic suggestion, 
the amber embalming hints of by-gone social condi- 
tions, or preserving honoured family names other- 
wise lost. Although involving some repetition, the 
more noteworthy changes of name are given in tabu- 
lated form, a list by no means complete, but with all 
traceable etymologies not elsewhere mentioned : 



Amityville 


was 


West Neck. 


Appletree Neck 


ki 


Saghtekoos. 
/ Sunswick, (Ind.) 


Astoria 


(1 


\ Jacques Farm.' 
( Hallet's Cove. 






Babylon 


(< 


Red Hook. 


Barren Island 


(( 


'T Beeren Eylandt.' 


Bellport 


i( 


Occombomock. 


Blue Point 


« 


Manotasoquat. 


Bridgehampton 


u 


Feversham. 


Brooklyn Rights 


t( 


Ihpetonga.^ 


Brookville 


(( 


Wolver's Hollow. 


« 


i< 


J Susco's Wigwam. 
\ Pink's Hollow. 






Bushwick Creek 


u 


The Normans' Kill. 


Canoe Place 


<( 


Merosuck. 


Centreport 


<< 


Little Cow Harbour 


Cold Spring 


(( 


Nachaquatuck. 
I Wigwam Swamp. 


College Point 


l( 


\ Tew's Neck. 

( Lawrence's Neck. 



' After Jacques Bentyn, an early settler of Newtown. 
' The Bears' Island. 
^ A high, sandy hill. 



EARL Y LONG ISLAND. 



Comae 

Coney Island 

Coram 
Cow Bay 

Cripplebush 
Cutchogue 

Dutch Kills 

Dyer's Neck 

Easthampton 
East River, The 

Eaton Neck 
Farmingdale 

Fire Island ^ 

Fireplace 

Fisher's Island 
Flatbush 

Flushine 



Winnecomac' 
i' Narrioch, 

\ 'T Conijen Eyiandt. 
( Scheyer's Island. 

Caroway.* 
\ 'T Schout's Baie. 
I Howe's Bay. 

'T Kreupel Bosch. 

Corchaug." 
\ Kanapauka Kills. 
( Burger Joris Kills. 
\ Poquat. 
I Van Brunt's Neck. 

Maidstone. 

'T Helle Gadt Rivier. 
i Gardiner's Neck. 
[ Eaton Manor. 

Hard Scrabble. 
\ Siekrewhacky. 
( Seal Island. 

Setauket South. 

Conetquot. 

South Haven. 

Winthrop's Island, 
i Vlachte-bosch. 
( Midwout. 
( Vlissingen. 
I Newark. 



' A beautiful place. 
- Name of an Indian chief. 
^ Principal place. 

■* A corruption of Five Islands, once the number of islets now 
joined inone long bar. 



CHANGES OF NAME. 



n 



Flushing Bay 


- 


(( 


Clinton Bay. 


Fort Hamilton 




« 


Najack Bay. 


Fort Ponds 




{( 


Konkhongauk. 


Fresh Pond 




(( 


Conomock. 


Gardiner's Island 




<< 


Monchonock.' 
"Muscota. 


Glen Cove 




-« 


Musquito Cove. 
The Place. 
-Pembroke. 


Glenwood 




(( -1 


Nevvarke. 
, Littleworth. 
^Madnank (Ind.) 


Great Neck 




(1 


Madnan's Neck. 
Mad Nan's Neck. 
~ Horse Neck. 


Greenlawn 




« 


i Cometico. 
I Old Fields. 


Greenport 




(( 


Sterling Harbour. 


Greenpoint 




<( 


Cherry Point. 
r Canarasset. 


Jamaica 




-< 


Bever Pond, Jemaco 
Rustdorp. 
, Crawford. 


Jericho 




(( 


Lusum. 
1 The Farms. 


King's Park 




i( 


Sunk Meadow. 


Little Neck 




« 


Cornbury. 


Little Neck Bay 
Brookhaven 


) 

f 


<( 


Minnoseroke. 


Little Neck Bay \ 
Hempstead \ 


(( 


Martin Gerretsen's B. 


'A 


place 


where n 


aany have died. 



72 



EARLY LONG ISLAND, 



Lloyd's Neck 

Locust Valley was 



Long Island, 
or Nassau, 



Long Island City " 



Long Island Sound ^ " 



Manhasset 



Manhasset Bay 



Caumsett. 

Queen's Village. 

Horse Neck. 

Buckram.' 

Seawanhacky. 

Wamponomon. 

Manati. 

Mohican. 

Matouwacks. 

Paumanacke. 

Capo di Olympo. 

Isle de I'Ascension. 

Islant de Gebrokne 

Lant. 
Sion. 

Isle Plowden. 
Island of Sterling. 
Domine's Hoeck. 
Bennett's Point. 
Hunter's Point. 
'T Groodt Baie. 
The North Sea. 
Sintsinck. 
Cow Neck. 
Cow Bay. 
Howe's Bay. 
'T Schout's Baie. 



' Buckram was probably a corruption of Buckhanam, Norfolk, the 
seat of the Cock family, who were among the earliest settlers of 
Locust Valley. The name is cognate to Buckingham and other 
derivatives from the beech. 

- In an English map published during the Revolution (Jeffrey, 
London, 1778), Long Island Sound is put down as " The Devil's 
Belt," a name the whaleboaters made most appropriate. 



CHANGES OF NAME. 



73 



Maspeth 
Massapequa 



Melville 



Montauk Point' 

Moriches 

Mount Sinai 

Near Rockaway 
New Lots 

Newtown 

Newtown Creek 

Northport 
Oldfields Bay 
Oldfield's Point 
Oyster Bay 
Oyster Ponds 
Patchogue 
Peconic Bay 



<< 









Metsepe. 

Mespatches. 
\ Unkway Neck. 
1 South Oyster Bay. 

iSunquam. 
Yaphank. 
Sweet's Hollow. 

Montaukett. 

Mohican. 

Visscher's Hoeck. 

Merogies. 
j Nonowoutuck. 
[Old Man.^ 

Clinktown. 

'T Oostwout. 

Middleburgh. 

Hastings. 

Maspeth Kills. 

English Kills. 

Great Cow Harbour. 

Conscience Bay. 

Sharp's Point. 

Folestone. 

Poquatuck. 

Porchog ' 

'T Cromme Gouwe* 



' Montauk Point, nine miles long, west of Fort Pond, was called 
The Hither Woods ; beyond the Pond, the western half was called 
The North Neck, the eastern. The Indian Field. 

^ First applied to a favourite tavern — "The Old Man's" — in 
familiar recognition of the landlord's good fellowship. 

'^ Shortening of Panochanog, "the place where they gamble and 
dance." 

* The Crooked Bay. 



74 



EARLY LONG ISLAND. 



Plainedge 


(( 


Turkey ville. 


Plandome 


« 


Little Cow Neck. 


Plum Island 


(( 


Isle of Patmos. 


Port Jefferson 


<< 


j Sonasset. 

1 Drown Meadow. 


Port Washington 


(< 


Cow Neck Village, 


Queens 


<( 


Bushville. 


Riverhead 


(( 


1 Acquobogue * 
I River Head. 


St. James 


K 


Sherawog. 


Setauket 


<( 


Ashford. 


Setauket Bay- 


<( 


Cromwell Bay. 


Shelter Island 


<( 


( Farret's Island. 
I Sylvester's Island. 


Southampton 


« 


\ Agawam " 
( Southton. 


Southold 


« 


( Toyong. 

(The South Hold. 


St. Ronan's Well 


<( 


i Snake Hill. 
' Yonkers.^ 


Stony Brook 


• < 


Wapowoag. 


Suffolk County 


<( 


The Brush Plains. 


Sunken Meadow 


(< 


Slongo. 


Syosset 


<< 


The East Woods. 


Wading River 


<( 


Panquacumsuck. 


Wainscott 


« 


Wayumscutt. 


Westbury* 


(( 


Wallage. 



• The Head of the Bay. 

* A place abounding in fish. 

^ An estate belonging to Adrian van der Donck. 
*■ Named from his English home in Wiltshire, by Edmund Titus, 
founder of the American family. 



CHANGES OF NAME. 75 

Westville " JWoodedge. 

( Bungy. 
Willet's Point " Thome's Point.' 

Woodville ** Sweezey's Hollow. 

' From William Thome, who came to Flushing in 1642. 



V. 



THE FIVE DUTCH TOWNS. 



To plant a colonie, it requires all best parts of art, courage, judg- 
ment, honesty, constancy, diligence and industry, to do but neere 
well. — Captain John Smith. 

EARLY in the year 1620, the Holland merchants 
who had carried on the fur-trade with the 
Island of Manhattan, wished to plant a colony 
there, and it was proposed that the Reverend John 
Robinson, with four hundred of his people, should 
establish themselves at the mouth of the Hudson. 
But the Pilgrims were loth to form a new common- 
wealth under any but English auspices, and the 
course of the Mayflozver was directed northward. 

Two years later, Sir Dudley Carleton, English 
Ambassador at The Hague, claimed the country as a 
part of New England. The Dutch gave him no 
specific answer. Their end was trade rather than 
colonisation, and the English were too disheartened 
by the Indian war in Virginia to press the matter. 
In 1623, the organisation of the West India Com- 
pany was completed, and then were made the first 
active efforts for the settlement of Manhattan and 

76 



THE FIRST PLANTA TIOJSTS. 7/ 

the valley of 'T Noordt-Rivier, efforts to which im- 
petus was soon given by the book of Johann de 
Laet. 

But, though the Dutch rightfully claimed juris- 
diction from the Delaware to Cape Cod, the States- 
General concerned themselves little with Long 
Island. Neither their government nor their social 
institutions extended east of Queens County. It is 
chiefly within the present limits of Kings County 
that we find the impress of Holland, and the hon- 
oured patronymics of Nieuw Nederlandt. No pa- 
troons established there the great manorial estates 
of the Hudson River Valley. The first plantations 
were almost entirely from the individual enterprise 
of isolated squatters, or the banding together of 
little groups of kinsmen or former neighbours. 
They throve in a sturdy independence, perhaps 
stimulated by the Yankee intruders at the East, and 
set small store on the patronage of the Director- 
General and his Council. 

In 1638, the States-General declared the monopoly 
of the West India Company at an end. The land 
was henceforth free to all in-dweilers, Dutch or 
others, who would recognise the judicial authority 
of the Company. Any person might appropriate as 
much land as he could cultivate, but after an occu- 
pancy of ten years a quit-rent of one-tenth its 
produce was to be given. This the planters were 
often slow to pay, and, in the summer of 1656, 
Stuyvesant forbade the delinquents taking any grain 
from the ripening fields until the tithe had been paid. 

January 15, 1639, the Director-General Kieft bought 



78 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

from the Indians all the land from Rockaway to Sick- 
rewhacky, and thence, across the Island to Martin 
Gerretsen's Bay. The land was then granted to 
private planters, or to companies, by whom it was 
farmed out. In 1640, a new charter gave to all 
immigrants the rights enjoyed by the Dutch. New 
England heretics and malcontents gladly sought a 
home under these liberal provisions. 

The Dutch settlements were formed into one ad- 
ministrative District in 1661.' Nieuw Amersfoordt 
and Midwout, which had been united under a single 
Court, were then separated ; Boswyck and Nieuw 
Utrecht were annexed, and, with Breuckelen, which 
had had the first Court, they formed " The Five 
Dutch Towns." From Holland came the idea of 
federal union which has dominated our country, and 
here was one of its earliest germs. To the Court of 
the District came the Magistrates of the Town 
Courts (who had jurisdiction over all minor breaches 
of the peace, and in civil suits to the amount of fifty 
guilders) with appellate cases, and here were deter- 
mined all matters of common interest, as the laying 
out of roads, the building of churches and of 
schools. 

The Five Dutch Towns were held together by the 
clannish sympathies of the people, as well as by 
official bond. Even after they became the Riding 
of an English shire, they formed, until 1690, a sepa- 

' The sheriffs, until after the organisation of the county, were suc- 
cessively David Prevoost, Pieter Tounemann, and Adrian Hege- 
mann. Their salary was two hundred guilders, with clerk's fees, 
one half the civil, and one third the criminal fines. 



THE DUTCH CHURCH. 79 

rate administrative District with its own secretary' 
for probates, for marriage settlements, and for 
" transports," or conveyances of land. They also 
formed one ecclesiastical body, joining in the sup- 
port of their common Domine, and mutually ac- 
cepting the doctrines of the Synod of Dortrecht."* 
Until 1772, they were under the authority of the 
Classis of Amsterdam, and services in the Dutch 
language were continued well into the present 
century.' 

A glance would suggest the seeming descent of 
Breuckelen with its intermediate form of Brookland/ 

' Nicasius de Sille was the most notable incumbent. By him were 
written the joint wills of husband and wife, peculiar to our Dutch 
ancestors. 

'^ The Synod of Dortrecht was in session from November, 1618, 
to May, 1619. Here were assembled representatives of the churches 
of The Palatinate, of Hesse, of Switzerland, and of Bremen, 
Louis XIII. forbade the attendance of the delegates of the French 
Reformed Church. The Synod ratified the Heidelberg Catechism 
and Confession of Faith, and closed with the declaration that " its 
marvellous labours had made Hell tremble." 

^ It is an interesting fact that, with the decline of the Dutch element 
in the Five Towns, an entirely distinct settlement was started, and, 
in a very humble way, has retained to the present time the customs 
and language of Holland, 

Tuckerstown, a fishing village a little distance from Sayville, and 
sometimes called West Sayville, or Greenville, was settled in 1786 
by Gustav Tukker, from Vlieland in North Holland, an oysterman 
who had heard of the famous oysters of Long Island. He settled 
four miles west of Blue Point, and soon sent for six other families 
from Zealand. In 1825 was a larger immigration. The people pre- 
serve their national habits, and Dutch is their home language. The 
services of the Holland Christian Reformed Church are in Dutch. — 
New York Evening Post, September 9, 1893. 

* Bruyklandt, Brukland, Broocklandl, are among the most frequent 
of the early variations of the name. 



8o EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

But as is often the case the apparent etymology is 
wrong. Here is no celebration of a land of streams, 
no survival of De Gebrokne Landt, but the name- 
sake of Breuckelen/ a pretty village six leagues from 
Amsterdam on the road to Utrecht. 

The great city,^ which has absorbed nearly her 
entire county and is stretching her eager arms far 
out on the Hempstead Plains, had her official birth 
in 1636. But from the very founding of Nieuw 
Amsterdam there had been a few scattered bouweries 
and plantations within her limits. Coincident with 
the purchase of Manhattan, there had been, chiefly 
on Long Island, those settlements of the Huguenots 
befriended by the Dutch in both Holland and 
America. 

In 1622, the Walloons resident in the Nether- 
lands, applied to the English ambassador for per- 
mission to settle in Virginia. Sir Dudley Carleton 
referred the matter to the king, and James, to the 
Virginia Company. Their reluctant consent was 
weighted with unfavourable conditions which the 
Walloons rejected. When the enlarged scope of 
the West India Company made settlement as well 
as trade an object to the Directors, Schipper Cor- 
nelis Mey brought out, from their uncertain refuge 
in the often ravaged Palatinate, thirty families of 
French and Belgic descent. A sorely driven people, 
their very name of Walloon showed them to be 

' The name signifies marsh-land, and was long appropriate to the 
swamps of Gowanus. 

^ In 1790, the village of Brooklyn was proposed as the seat of the 
national capital. In 1890, nine-tenths the population of Long Island 
is within the city limits. 



THE EARLIEST LAND GRANT. 8 1 

homeless wanderers. Their story is too nearly- 
parallel with the history of the Dutch, their lives 
and fortunes too closely mingled by the ties of in- 
termarriage, of Church and State, for them to be 
long separated. The grant of Peter Minuit, under 
the charter of the West India Company, gave them 
the little cove at once called 'T Waale-Boght. It is 
probable that even earlier, in April, 1623, a few 
families were in Nieuw Amersfoordt, where they 
introduced the peach, the pear, and the quince. 
Indeed, these Walloons were the first who in Nieuw 
Nederlandt cultivated the soil as a means of liveli- 
hood. 

From 1626, there was a steadily increasing popula- 
tion in Breuckelen, although the first land grant in 
Kings County was not until ten years later. At 
that time, June 7, 1636, Jacobus van Corlear, some 
time Commissary at 'T Huys van Huip,' bought of 
the Indians the fertile flats of Castateeuw.'' The 
same day, Jacques Bentyn, the Schout-Fiscal, and 
Willem Adrianse Bennet bought lands at Gowanus. 
The next year Joris de Rapalje, an exile from the 
fair Rochelle, and his wife Catalina Trico, settled at 

' The House of Hope, the Dutch post on the Connecticut, estab- 
lished on the site of Hartford in 1633. 

^ " 16 June, 1636. The Director-General and Council of Neiiw 
Nederlandt residing at Fort Amsterdam on the Island of Manhattan 
certify that before them appeared this day, Tenkirauw, Ketaman, 
Ararykau, Wappettawackensis, owners, who by advice of Penhawis 
& Cakapeteyno, chiefs in that quarter, have, for certain goods deliv- 
ered unto them, sold and delivered unto Jacobus Van Curler the 
middlemost of the three fflats to them belonging, called Castateeuw, 
lying on the island Seawanhacky between the bay of the North 

River and the East River." — Albany Records^ G. G., 31, 35. 
6 



82 EARL V LONG ISLAND. 

'T Waale-Boght ' with the little Sara,' born ten years 
before, during their brief sojourn in Fort Orange. 
In 1638 the Director-General Kieft gave land, the 
first recorded deed, to Abraham Rycken, ancestor 
of the Riker family. 

Soon after, the people of Breuckelen applied to 
the Council for permission to organise a town at 
their own expense. This privilege was granted 
November 22, 1646, by the Director-General Kieft, 
in behalf of the High and Mighty Lords States- 
General of the United Netherlands, His Highness 
of Orange, and the Honourable Directors of the 
General Incorporated West India Company. Jan 
Teunissen was commissioned as Schout. This little 
village of Breuckelen was a mile inland, but the 
water-front was well taken up in bouweries, and 
there were even then three other distinct hamlets, 
the Gowanus, 'T Waale-Boght, and the Ferry, — 
Het-Veer, as the nuclei of future growth. 

In 1642, before the town had entered on its mu- 
nicipal existence, a public ferry to Nieuw Amster- 
dam had been established. It ran from a spot near 
the foot of the present Fulton Street, where was the 
house and garden of Cornells Dircksen, to a point 
not far from Peck's Slip, where also he owned land. 
There, on an old tree by the water side, hung a 
conch-shell horn with which the rare passenger 
would summon from his plough the yeoman, who, 

' De Rapalje's land was on the south shore of the bay. The tract 
was called by the Indians Rennagaconk, and is now within the 
grounds of the Marine Hospital. 

^Self-styled in a petition to Stuyvesant April 4, 1656: "Sarah 
Jorise, first-born Christian daughter in Nieuw Nederlandt." 



A YEARLY KERMISS. 83 

drawing a rude boat from its hiding-place in the 
bushes, rowed him over for a fare of three stuyvers, 
paid in wampum. The privilege was a valued one, 
and the next year Dircksen sold to Willem Tomas- 
sen his house and land in Breuckelen with the right 
of ferriage for twenty-three hundred guilders. In 
1653, a scale of charges was made, fixing the rates' 
and requiring a license from the Government. A 
little later the ferryman had become a person of 
such importance, as with his assistant to be exempt 
from " training " and all military service. In 1698, 
so shrewd a financier as Rip van Dam leased the 
ferry for seven years at an annual rental of ;^85. 
It was then called the Nassau Ferry. By 17 17, the 
business had so increased that a second route, the 
New York Ferry, was opened, running from the 
same point to a landing at the Burger's Path." 

To hasten the growth of the young town, in 1656, 
the Schepens ordered the owners of vacant lots to 
build upon them within a specified time the next 
year. Thursday was appointed as a market day. 
In 1675, a yearly fair, or Kermiss, for sale or barter of 
" all grayne, cattle or other produce of the country," 
was appointed to be held during the first week in 
November. Long Island was even then a source of 
supplies to her neighbours, and had begun that 
career of careful cultivation which now covers her 

' P'or a wagon and two horses 20 stuyvers 

" " " one horse 16 

" an Indian 6 

' ' a Person 3 " 

^ The original name of Ohl Slip, given from the Burgher Joris, an 

early merchant and smith in Nieuw Amsterdam, and one of the first 

planters of Mespat. 



84 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

plains, and reclaimed marshes with market-gardens 
that are a symphony in varied greens. 

The town was not yet so large that it did not feel 
safer behind the palisades erected by an ordinance 
of 1660. Thirty-one families were then living there, 
and the population was one hundred and thirty-four. 
A church was organised under the Domine, Hendricus 
Selyns.' It was made up from the four hamlets of 
the " Kerch-buurte," or church-neighbourhood, with 
a membership of twenty-seven.' For some years 
services were held in a barn, and the first building 
was not put up until 1666. Its site was in Fulton 
Street, near Lawrence, and it was called by Bankers 
and Sluyter, " a small and ugly little church standing 
in the middle of the street." 

Here also was held that benign ofificc peculiar to 
the Dutch Church, assisting, and in a new country 

' Hendricus Selyns, one of the most accomplished scholars of his 
time, was inducted September 3, 1660. He was presented to the 
congregation by Nicasius de Sille and Martin Kiieger, Burgomaster 
of Nieuw Amsterdam. Breuckelen had previously been dependent 
upon the ministrations of the pastor of Vlacktebosch, but as said 
the appeal for the new church, Domine Polhemus was growing old, 
and the road between the two villages was " rocky, hilly and danger- 
ous to travel." 

^ " Het Register der Ledematen der Kerche van Breuckelen' 
gives the following names of its charter members : 
Joris Dircksen Willem Gerritssen van Couwenhoven. 

Susanna Duffels Greatje Jans 

Albert Cornelissen Tennis Nyssen 

Trijntje Hudders Femmetje Jans 

Aeltje Joris Adam Brower 

Pieter Monfoordt Johannes Marcus 

Sara de Blanche Elsie Hendricks 

Jan Evertse Tennis Jansen 

Tryntje Symons Barbara Leucas 

Willem Brendebent Jan Jorissen 

Aeltje Brackand Jan Hibou 

Jan Pietersen Gertruydt Barent 



A LOTTERY AND A CHURCH. 



85 



usually preceding, the pastorate, the " 'Zieken- 
trooster," or " Krank-besoecker," the comforter of 
the sick. In 1626, Jan Huick held the ofifice. 

The building of the first Episcopal Church in 
Brooklyn was attempted by means then considered 
quite legitimate.' In Rivington's New York Gazette, 
March 17, 1774, appears the 

" Scheme of a Lottery for raising the sum of 
£600 to build a CHURCH at Brookland Ferry, under 
the patronage of the Rector and Vestry of Trinity 
Church, there being no place in Kings County for 
the public worship of Almighty God where the 
English Liturgy is used, and the inhabitants in 
communion with the Church of England having 
long submitted to great inconvenience from inclem- 
ency of the weather and other causes, intreat the 
assistance of the Public in promoting their laudable 
method of raising a suf^cient sum for erecting a 
decent building for the service of Almighty God. 
The Lottery to consist of 4000 tickets subject to a 
deduction of 15 per cent. 

" Prizes. Dollars. 



2. 
2. 

4- 

8. 

12. 

i6. 

108. 

1180. 



500 
300 
100 

50 

25 

, 20 

10 

5 



are 



1332 Prizes 
2668 Blanks 



Dollars. 

1000 

600 

400 

200 

300 

320 

1080 

5900 

10,000 



' The scheme was interrupted by the Revolutionary War, and St. 
Ann's Church was not built until 1787. 



86 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

"4000 tickets at twenty shillings are 10,000 dol- 
lars. Little need be said in praise of the above 
scheme, as the careful observer will at once see the 
propriety of becoming an adventurer, there being no 
more than 2 Blanks to a Prize. 

"The above Lottery is made under the manage- 
ment of 

Alexander Golden, Esquire, 

Captain Stephen Payne Clyde Gallway. 
Messieurs 

John Carpenter, 

John Crowley, 

Thomas Everet, 

Thomas Horsfield, 

Whitehead Cornell." 

A school was first opened in the summer of 1661, 
by Carel de Beauvais, who was not only teacher but 
messenger of the courts, precentor, bell-ringer, and 
grave-digger. Nearly a hundred years later, is this 
announcement of a man of more ambitious title : 

"July 3, 1749. Notice is hereby given that at 
New York Ferry on Nassau Lsland, is carefully 
taught, reading, writing, vulgar and decimal frac- 
tions, extraction of the square and cube root, navi- 
gation and surveying. French and Spanish taught 
and translated and sufficient security given to keep 

all writing secret by 

" John Clark, Philomath." 

In 1663, Hendrick Claesen and other Walloons 
in Nieuw Utrecht asked permission to settle at 
'T Waale-Boght. In 1676, the land in and about 
Bedford was bought of the Indians for " 100 guilders 



THE KING'S HIGHWAY. 8/ 

seawant ; half a tun good beer; 3 guns, long barrells, 
each with a pound of powder and lead proportional 
to a gun, and 4 matchcoats." Thus, the country was 
filling up, and the time approaching for the coales- 
cence of the scattered hamlets. 

It was not until 1704, that the King's Highway, 
now Fulton Street and Fulton Avenue, was laid out. 
It was to run " ffrom low water mark in the town- 
ship of Brookland in Kings County, and ffrom thence 
to run ffour rod wide up and between the houses of 
John Clerson, John Coe and George Jacobs, and soe 
all along to Brookland towne afforesaid, through the 
lane that now is." This road was extended through 
Kings, Queens, and Suffolk to Easthampton, and 
was long the one line of communication between 
the East and the West. Nor is it yet disused ; in 
Queens County it is the Jericho Turnpike along 
which the canvas-covered market wagons still make 
their nightly way. 

The early official records of Breuckelen are sup- 
posed to have been destroyed during the Revolu- 
tion. But in none of the Dutch Towns were the 
records as complete, as characteristic, and as signifi- 
cant as in the English Towns, where each was in 
itself a little democracy. Eastern Long Island was 
socially and politically, as well as geologically, a 
New England moraine, and not unlike a glacial 
sheet was that rigid Puritan sway which impelled 
the emigration thither. 

In the same summer of 1636 that Jacobus van 
Corlear bought the flats of Castateeuw, Andreas 



88 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

Hudde, one of the Council of the Province, and 
Wolfert Gerretsen, bought meadows to the west- 
ward, and Wouter van Twiller to the eastward — in 
all, a tract of fifteen thousand acres. The little 
settlements which here sprang up were soon grouped 
together as Nieuw Amersfoordt. There had cer- 
tainly been scattered farmsteads as early as 1623, 
but the question of priority of settlement between 
Nieuw Amersfoordt and Brooklyn cannot be authori- 
tatively settled. The town was named in fond re- 
membrance of Amersfoordt in the province of 
Utrecht, birthplace of the heroic Barneveldt, home 
of many of its early settlers. Through the eigh- 
teenth century the name struggled for existence with 
Vlacklands, the Flatlands of the English. The de- 
scendants of the Dutch planters proudly clung to 
the original name, but it was the survival of the 
fittest. In 1801, a legislative enactment decreed 
that henceforth the town should be known only as 
Flatlands. There the plodding yeoman throve, 
content with the results of a patient industry, which 
brought a comfortable, if somewhat rude mainte- 
nance. Their carefully tilled grounds were, as Char- 
lotte Bronte says of the environs of Brussels, " fertile 
as a Brobdignagian kitchen-garden," and yielded 
rich returns in grain and fruits and culinary plants. 
The little group of plantations and bouweries was 
soon a flourishing farming region. With these fer- 
tile flats, which appealed to the Dutch eye with 
fonder association than the hills and dales of Man- 
hattan, Nieuw Amersfoodt included the salt-marshes 
along Jamaica Bay, where efforts at dyking were 



A NIEUW AMERSFOORDT VERSE-MAKER. 89 

already made, and 'T Beeren Eylandt, then much 
larger than now, and overgrown with cedars. Here, 
as well as at Roede Hoeck, was a tobacco planta- 
tion of Wouter van Twiller, and called Achterveldt. 
This worthy Hollander, whatever his inefficiency as 
a governor, had a genuine fondness for country life, 
and did much for the agricultural development of 
the province. 

The first church built in Nieuw Amersfoordt stood 
for nearly a century and a half. It was an octagonal 
structure with shingled sides and belfry, and the 
enclosed porch arranged as a " Doophausje," or 
Baptistry. When torn down, in 1794, there were 
still the original wineglass-pulpit, and the rude 
benches for the congregation. To them had been 
added, when the church was enlarged in 1716, two 
chairs of state, one for the magistrate, and one for 
" Yef-vrouw," the Domine's wife. 

In Nieuw Amersfoordt lived for a time, Jacob 
Steendam, the first verse-maker of Nieuw Neder- 
landt. In 1652, he bought a bouwerie there, which, 
on returning to Holland eight years later, he sold to 
the West India Company for one hundred and 
ninety schepels * of buckwheat. Among his verses, 
inspired by his residence there, are '* The Complaint 
of Nieuw Nederlandt to her Mother," 1659, and the 
"Praise of Nieuw Nederlandt," 1661.'' 

September 10, 1645, the West India Company, 

acting through the Director-General Kieft, bought 

of the Indians the tract of land from Coney Island 

' The schepel equalled three pecks. 

* See Mr, Henry M. Murphy's Anthologie of Nieuw Nederlandt, 



90 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

to Gowanus. It included the present town of 
Nieuvv Utrecht. Contemporary official reports to 
the States-General speak of the new acquisition with 
well tempered enthusiasm, and say " 'T Lange 
Eylandt is the pearl of the Nieuw Nederlandt." 

The praise was not lost. In November, 165 1, the 
Honourable Cornells van Werckhoven, Schepen of 
Utrecht, and member of the West India Company, 
rose in its Council Chamber,' in Amsterdam, to say 
that he was ready to plant two colonies in America, 
and that one should be near 'T Hoofden ' on the 
Bay of the Great River. Coming to Nieuw Amster- 
dam, ne received a grant from Stuyvesant, and, 
November 22, 1652, he bought of the Indians the 
Nyack tract' bordering on the Narrows and the Bay. 

Van Werckhoven then returned to Holland, leav- 
ing the estate in charge of the tutor of his children. 
Jacques Cartelyou was an accomplished man, versed 
in languages and mathematics, in medicine and 
other sciences, with a philosophical habit of mind 
and a practical ability equally valuable in pioneer 
life. The Labadist travellers summed up his virtues, 
saying, " the worst of it is, he was a good Cartesian, 
and not a good Christian, regulating himself and all 

' The house in which were the offices of the West India Company 
is still standing on Haarlemmer Strasse, facing 'T Heeren Strasse. 

'^ The Narrows, or Hamel's Hoofden, named after a Director of 
the Company. The price paid was six shirts, six pairs of hose, six 
combs, six knives, two pairs of scissors, and two pairs of shoes. 

' Nyack, Najack. Najack Bay was the bend near Fort Hamilton, 
later known as Jacquesses' Bay. Near by was Denice Ferry, half a 
mile north of Fort La Fayette, named from Denys v^n Duyn, on? 
of the early settlers of the town. 



NICASIUS DE SILLE. 01 

externals by reason and justice only ; nevertheless he 
regulated all things better by these principles than 
do nnost people who bear the name of Christian, or 
pious people." During their visit, they lent him 
Les Pens^es de Pascal, which they " judged would 
be useful to him." An unexpected note of liberality 
in these jealous propagandists, if they communed 
with the broad-souled Pascal. 

His patron soon dying, Cortelyou determined that 
the proposed colony should not die with him. He 
petitioned the Director-General and the Council for 
permission to " found a town on Long Island on the 
Bay of the Great River." He then surveyed the 
land, dividing it into twenty-one lots of fifty acres, 
and a house-lot, four acres, to each settler. These 
lots were granted to nineteen men, two being re- 
served for " the poor." 

One of these indwellers was the Chancellor and 
Fiscal-Schout,' Nicasius de Sille, poet, historian, and 
Doctor of Laws. He built the first house erected in 
Nieuw Utrecht, a substantial specimen of fine old 
colonial architecture, and which remained standing 
until 1850. De Sille is one of three Dutch verse- 
makers whose memory is preserved in Murphy's 
Anthologie. He interspersed the Records of the 
Town with verses, among which an epitaph to the 
infant child of Jacques Cortelyou is perhaps the best : 

" Hier leidt de eerste geboort van Cortelyou gestorben ; 
Die erste van het dorp van Utrecht gesproten ; 

' An officer whose functions were those of Attorney-General and 
Sheriff, the most responsible office in the province. 



92 EARL V LONG ISLAND. 

Onnosel voort getult, onnosel wech gerucht, 

Godt geeft datmet 't geteel hier, naa een beter lucht." ' 

Early in the settlement of the town, the inhabitants 
were much troubled by their fences being stolen at 
night. In 1655, the Director-General issued a proc- 
lamation, twice repeated, setting forth the incon- 
venience thereof and establishing the penalty — " For 
the first offence of being whipped and branded ; for 
the second, of being hanged with a cord until death 
follow, without favour to any person." 

The division of land was not followed by rapid 
settlement, and within three years but twelve houses 
were built. In 1659, the planters represent their land 
as insufficient, and petition for a part of the Canarsie 
Meadows, which was given them. The thrifty Hol- 

' Here lies the first from Cortelyou withdrawn ; 
The first child in the village of our Utrecht born ; 
Brought forth in innocence, snatched hence without a stain, 
God gave it being here, a better life to gain. 

Translated by H. M. MuRPHY. 

In another, the Earth speaks to her cultivators : 

" How long my worth did creatures of all kinds eschew, 
The ant, the slimy snake, and that uncouth, savage crew 
Shut out from Heaven's light by the umbrageous wood 
Did naught that I produced e'er savour of the good. 
Mother of all I was, but little did they care 
If what I might bring forth did ever breathe the air. 
But heat and sunshine now, a bright and genial sky, 
Infuse in me new life and nourishment supply ; 
And when I had no name, you gave the name to me 
Of Utrecht, unrenowned for my fertility. 
An honour great this is, but bide my future fame, 
I now am satisfied by the honour of my name. 
By grain and orchard fruit, by horses and by kine. 
By plants and by a race of men all growth of mine." 

H. M. M. 



THE FIRST RECORDS. 93 

landers and Palantines well knew the value of these 
salt marshes, although their owners had received for 
it but a half dozen coats, a few looking-glasses, 
chisels, axes, knives, and kettles. 

Early in 1660, orders were given to palisade the 
village and to " cut down trees within gun-shot so 
that men might see afar off.'" Great alarm was 
felt over the menace of the " River Indians," and the 
Fiscal's house, the only tiled roof in the village, was 
fortified as a place of refuge. Soon after, a block- 
house was built for protection against "Indians, 
pirates and other robbers." The same year, the set- 
tlers asked Stuyvesant to appoint a Schout, a Clerk, 
and an Assessor, with authority to allot the unassigned 
lands that they might be enclosed and cultivated. 

The formal incorporation of the town was in 1660. 
The ofificial business and current events had been 
carefully recorded by De Sille up to this time, " for 
the encouragement and information of posterity." 
He then says : " I now close this Introduction, or 
Commencement of the Records of the Town, all the 
preceding having been written by myself, or my son 
Laurens, as gathered from various sources and from 
memory. I now deliver this book to Jacob van 
Curlear, Secretary of the Town of Nieuw Utrecht, 
and his Assistant, Jan Tomasse, whom I desire for 
our benefit and that of our Successours, to continue 
the same in the manner in which it is done. 

"Closed this 15th day Dec^ A.D. 1660, in Amster- 
dam by me Nicasius de Sille."" 

' See Statute of Winchester, temp. Edward I. 
''■ These Records have been translated by the late Mr. Teunis 
Bergen. 



94 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

The first church in Nieuw Utrecht was organised 
in 1677, but no building was erected until 1700. On 
its " Boeck der Ledematen " are many French as 
well as Dutch names, for here again a similarity of 
theological tenets brought in close unison immi- 
grants as unlike in blood and temperament as the 
Calvinists from the Rhine and from the Garonne. 

The quiet days absorbed in the homely cares of 
pastoral life were not undisturbed by outer fac- 
tions. Captain John Scott, an unscrupulous English 
adventurer, having a royal grant to possess unoccu- 
pied lands, was appointed by Connecticut to exam- 
ine the claims of Holland to 'T Lange Eylandt. 
This he regarded as a warrant for dispossession. 
Crossing the Sound, he organised the English towns 
into a rude provisional government of which he was 
president. He sought to draw the Dutch towns 
into that league, and early in 1663 rode into Nieuw 
Utrecht at the head of a lawless band. He raised 
the English flag and proclaimed King Charles as 
sovereign from Boston to Virginia. But he was 
driven from the town and the case referred to arbi- 
trators. Then the Dutch referees, De Sille and others, 
quietly disposed of his assumption by saying "their 
governments in Europe would settle that matter." 

The name of Flatbush has come by gradual change 
from Vlackte-Bosch, through the intermediate forms 
of Flackebos, Flackbash, and Flatbos. The name 
was from the first more or less in use, although the 
official designation was Middlewout, as between 
Breuckelen and Nieuw Amersfoordt. In the form 



THE FIRST DUTCH CHURCH. 95 

of Midwout this name was retained until after the 
Revolution.* 

Although receiving its patent" before Nieuw 
Utrecht and Bosvvijck, Vlackbosch was, from its 
inland situation, the last settled of the Dutch towns. 
Its first inhabitants, coming from 1645 to 1650, 
were farmers attracted from Gravesend and Nieuw 
Utrecht by its more fertile lands. After the incor- 
poration of the town and the grant of part of the 
Canarsie meadows to the " Indwellers of Midwout," 
its growth was rapid. By 1670, it had pushed out 
into 'T Oostwout — the East Woods, which as settled 
become the New Lots.' 

Very early in the planting of Midwout the first 
Dutch Church on Long Island* was organised, De- 
cember 17, 1654, and the specifications were given 
for building a house at Midwout, "sixty feet by 
twenty, where a chamber eight by fourteen may be 
partitioned off in the rear for the preacher, where 

' Mr. Bergen says Midwout and Oostwout were named from vil- 
lages on the Zuider Zee. The Dutch were unquestionably fond of 
repeating their home names, but here the topography is in each case 
a sufficient origin. Midwout was a densely wooded region between 
the flat lands on either side. The centre of the town was " 'T Dorp " ; 
the northern part, " 'T Steenrapp " (Stone-gathering, from raapen, to 
reap), and the southern was Rustenburgh. A brickyard was early in 
operation and called " 'T Steenbakken." 

^ November 26, 1652. 

^ In 1852 New Lots was set off from Flatbush as a distinct 
township. 

'' There were then but two churches in the Province, the Collegiate 
Dutch Church of Nieuw Amsterdam, built in 1633, on the north side 
of Pearl Street, half way between Whitehall Street and Broadway, 
and the North Dutch Church of Fort Orange, built in 1643. 



96 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

divine service may be held in the front part until 
we have more funds and the material necessary for 
a church has been collected. Then this building 
shall be used as a parsonage and barn." 

The building of the church began the next year 
under the direction of the Domine Megapolensis. 
The edifice was in form of a cross. The work went 
slowly on, and was not completed for several years. 
People in Nieuw Amersfoordt who were to share in 
its services were to aid in " cutting and hauling 
wood." The church was finally finished at a cost 
of four thousand six hundred and thirty-seven 
guilders ($1854.80), of which nearly one-tenth was 
raised by Flatbush, and the amount made up by 
Nieuw Amsterdam, Fort Orange, and the West India 
Company, the source of all unusual supplies to the 
colony.' 

The first Domine, coming in August, 1652, was 
Johannes Theodorus Polhemus, a former missionary 
to Brazil. He preached at Flatbush in the morning, 

^ December 19, 1656, a Director of the Company writes from Am- 
sterdam : "We should have sent you the bells for the villages of 
Heemstead and Midwout, but as they cannot be found ready made, 
and the time for making them is too short, you will have to wait 
until spring." 

December 20, 1659, Domine Polhemus and Jan Strieker address 
the " Noble, Rigourous and Honourable Gentlemen, and Honour- 
able Director-General of the Council in Nieuw Nederlandt," saying 
that the church in Midwout, "now, with God's help nearly com- 
pleted, requires according to our and inany of the people's opinion, 
a coat of colour and oil to make it last longer, being covered on the 
outside mostly with boards. These materials must necessarily be 
brought from the Fatherland, and we request it to be done upon 
your Honour's order to the Honourable Company." 



DOMINES IN FLATBUSH. 97 

and in the afternoon alternately at Breuckelen ' and 
Nieuw Amersfoordt. On his arrival the Director- 
General called the congregation together for their ap- 
proval of him. They consented to receive hirn, and to 
pay a salary of one thousand and forty guilders. Later 
the people of Breuckelen objected to paying their pro- 
portion, on the plea that his sermons were too short. 

From 1705 to 1743 the Domine of Flatbush was 
the learned Bernardus Freeman from Schenectady. 
Besides volumes of sermons, he published, for the 
edification of his cure, De Spiegel der Self-Kennis, 
a collection of ancient philosophical maxims. It is 
pleasant to think that the wisdom of Marcus Aure- 
lius and of Epictetus illumined the placid lives of 
these quiet bouweries. 

A man of very difTerent type was Johannes Cas- 
perus RubelP " Minister of the Gospel and Chymi- 

' Domine Polhemus died in Breuckelen, June 8, 1676, and was 
buried in the Doop-huys of the church there. 

- On first coming to America, Rubell was in charge of a German 
church in Philadelphia, but so insubordinate was he to his spiritual 
superiors, that in 1755 the Cetus desired "the rebellious Rubell" 
to resign. Thence he went to Rhinebeck on the Hudson before 
going to Long Island. Mr. Rubell was intensely loyal during the 
Revolution, always praying in church for " King George and Queen 
Charlotte, the Princes and Princesses of the Royal P'amily, and the 
Upper and Lower Houses of Parliament." From his pulpit in Flat- 
bush he denounced those opposed to the Government, as " Satan's Sol- 
diers," sure of eternal damnation. At the close of the war he was 
deposed from the ministry and turned his attention to his various phar- 
maceutical preparations. He was buried at Flatbush, his stone, one of 
the many old Dutch memorials in that primitive churchyard, inscribed 

" Totgedachteniss van 
Job's Gasp's Rubel V. D. M. 
Geborenden 6de March O. S. 1719 
Overleiden den 19 de Mali, 1797." ■ 
7 



98 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

cus," who announces in 1788 that "it has pleased 
Ahnighty God to give me the wisdom to find out 
the Golden Mother Tinctitre and such a universal pill 
as will cure most diseases. I have studied European 
Physics in four different Languages. I dont take 
much money as I want no more than a small living 
whereto God will give His blessing." 

The first school in Flatbush was opened in 1658-9, 
by Adrian Hegeman. A little later, Johannes van 
Eckellen, Clerk of the Church, was employed by the 
Consistory as schoolmaster. The Articles of Agree- 
ment, drawn up in 1682, were minute in specifications : 

"(i) The School shall begin at 8 o'clock in the 
morning and go out at 11 o'clock. It shall begin 
again at i o'clock and end at 4 o'clock. 

" (2) When the School shall open, one of the 
children shall read the morning prayer as it stands 
in the Catechism and close with the prayer before 
dinner. In the afternoon, it shall begin with the 
prayer after dinner, and close with the evening 
prayer. The evening school shall begin with the 
Lord's Prayer, and close by singing a Psalm. 

" (3) He shall instruct the children in the Com- 
mon Praj^er, and the Questions & Answers of the 
Catechism on Wednesday and Saturday to enable 
them to say their Catechism on Sunday afternoon in 
the Church. He shall demean himself patiently and 
friendly toward the children in their instruction and 
be active and attentive in their improvement. 

" (4) He shall be bound to keep his School nine 
months in succession from September to June, and 
always to be present himself. 



THE FIRST COURT-HOUSE. 99 

" He shall receive for a speller or a reader, in the 
day-school, 3 guilders, for a quarter, and for a writer, 

4 guilders. In the evening school, he shall receive 
for a speller or a reader, 4 guilders, and for a writer 

5 guilders per quarter. The residue of his salary- 
shall be 400 guilders in wheat of wampum value 
deliverable at Breuckelen Ferry, and for his services 
from October to May, 234 guilders in wheat at the 
same place, with the dwelling, pasturage and meadow 
appertaining to the school." 

As Clerk, his duties were to act as chorister, to 
ring the bell three times ; to read a chapter from the 
Bible, the Ten Commandments, the twelve Articles 
of Faith, and a Psalm. " When the Minister shall 
preach at Breuckelen or Nieuw Amersfoordt, to 
read twice before the Congregation, a Sermon. He 
shall provide a basin of water for the baptism for 
which he shall receive 12 stuyvers in wampum from 
the parents. He shall furnish bread and wine for 
the Communion at the charge of the Church. He 
shall act as Messenger for the Consistory. He shall 
give funeral invitations and toll the bell for which he 
shall receive for persons of fifteen and upwards 12 
guilders, and for under fifteen, 8 guilders." 

Flatbush was the original seat of justice for the 
present Kings County, from 1658, until the building, 
under English rule, ten years later, of a Court House 
at Gravesend. But, in 1686, the Courts resumed 
their sessions at Flatbush as the more central place, 
and there they remained until 1832. A second Court 
House was built which stood until 1758. 

The early comers to Vlacht-bosch widened an 



lOO EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

Indian trail over the hills of Prospect Park, down to 
the wooded plains at the south, into a cart-road run- 
ning from the Old Ferry through Nieuw Amers- 
foordt and Nieuw Utrecht to Gravesend. As a 
stage route and post-road it kept its rural character 
far into the present half-century, but as Flatbush 
Avenue, its native charms have wellnigh disap- 
peared. In clearing the country, the magnificent 
trees of the dense forest were left by the roadsides, 
great oaks and chestnuts, tulip-trees and sweet-gum, 
black walnut and sycamore, ample of girth, stately 
of stature. One of a historic group of fine old lindens 
still stands before a well preserved mansion of colo- 
nial note. In its fluttering shade, Washington had 
drawn rein, and there the English had pitched their 
tents. The first itinerant Methodists had preached 
under its green dome, and, the centre of an idyllic 
rural life, here, as around Goldsmith's village haw- 
thorn, were 

" Seats beneath the shade 
For talking age and whispering lovers made." 

Along this road there stood at intervals broad- 
roofed, dormer-windowed farmhouses built of wood 
and stone. With unbroken sweep from ridge pole 
downward, the roof extended to form the welcoming 
porch, the gathering place of summer evenings. As 
the eighteenth century advanced, houses of a dif- 
ferent type were built. In Flatbush Village was 
Melrose Hall, the stately home of Colonel William 
Axtel from the West Indies. During the Revolu- 
tion it was the centre of the Loyalists, and suffered 



BOSWIJCK. 10 1 

more than one siege from its turbulent neighbours. 
But here, perhaps, the English conquest had less 
influence than in any other spot in Nieuw Neder- 
landt ; here have lingered longest, and have been 
abandoned most reluctantly, the speech, the domes- 
tic habits, and the social economy of our Dutch 
ancestors. 

Bushwick, latest incorporated of the Five Dutch 
Towns, had but brief history during the waning rule 
of Holland. Its land was bought from the Indians 
by the West India Company for a little wampum, a 
few yards of cloth, and some dozen edge-tools.' The 
first settlement was made by a few Swedes and Nor- 
wegians, then called Normans, from whom Bushwick 
Creek received its early name of The Normans' Kill. 

February i6, 1660, fourteen Frenchmen and their 
interpreter, Peter Jan De Witt, arrived in Nieuw 
Amsterdam and asked the Director-General to lay 
out for them a town-plot. On the 19th, he came, 
with Jacques Corlear, the "sworn surveyour" of the 
Province, to select a " scite " for them. It was 
chosen between the Mespatches Kill and The Nor- 
mans' Kill, where twenty-two lots were surveyed. 
At a second visit, three weeks later, the people 
begged him to name the new town. Stuyvesant 
called the forest village Boswijck, and in the few re- 
maining years of his administration it was the object 
of his most thoughtful solicitude. 

As the few earlier settlers were living on scattered 

' Eight fathoms of wampum, eight fathoms duffels, twelve kettles, 
eight axes, eight adzes, some knives and awls. 



I02 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

plantations exposed to attack, the Director-General 
ordered them to remove and to concentrate them- 
selves about the embryo town, — " because we have 
war with the Indians, who have slain several of our 
Nieuw Nederlandter people." A blockhouse was 
then built by the colonists at 'T Waale-Boght, at 
'T Kiekeout — Lookout Point, on the East River, 
near the present foot of South Fourth Street. 

Deference to magistrates was strictly enforced in 
all the Dutch Towns. The Records of 1664 give 
the sentence of Jan Willemsen van Iselsteyn, com- 
monly called Jan van Leyden, for using " abusive 
language," and for writing "an insolent letter" to 
the authorities of Bushwick. He was "to be bound 
to the stake at the place of public execution, with a 
bridle in his mouth, rods under his arms, and a paper 
on his breast with the inscription — ' Lampoon-riter, 
False Accuser, Defamer of Magistrates,' and to be 
banished, with costs." 

Until after the Revolution, the township included 
within the later suburb of that name three distinct 
hamlets, — " Het Dorp," the town, clustered about 
the church ; " Het Kwis Padt," the cross-roads, upon 
the Flushing Road ; and " Het Strandt," on the 
shore of the East River. 

A boundary quarrel existed between Bushwick 
and Newtown for more than a hundred years, be- 
ginning in the time of Stuyvesant, who loved Bush- 
wick, the youngest child of his government, and 
hated Newtown. Lord Cornbury sought to end the 
matter by appropriating the disputed ground, a tract 
of some twelve hundred acres along the Mespatches 



CENSUS OF THE DUTCH TOWNS. IO3 

Kill. Long after its legal settlement,' it was a sorely 
mooted point between the rival townspeople. But 
time heals all wounds. Even the former Arbitration 
Rock, which long remained a witness to the neigh- 
bourhood feud and of its final adjustment, has been 
blasted into fragments and the contending town- 
ships are merged within the one great city. 

The Five Dutch towns throve under the English 
rule. The census of 1698, " within the King's 
County on Nassauw Island,'"* gives a list of free- 
holders, their wives and children, their apprentices 
and slaves, which sums up the population as follows : 

Brookland 511 

Boswick 301 

New Vtrecht 259 

Fflatlands als New Amesfoort . 256 

Fflatbush als Midwout .... 476 

In 1715, was published' "A True List of the 
Militia Regiment of King's County," which roster 
preserves many of the old Dutch names first upon 
the Island, names ever to be honoured by their 
descendants over the length and breadth of the 
land. 

' January 17, 1769. 

^ New York Documentary History, vol, iii., pp. 133-8. 

'^ Ibid., p. 183. 



VI. 



LADY MOODY'S PLANTATION. 



DECEMBER 19, 1645, the Director-General 
Kieft issued a document without precedent 
among territorial grants. It was no less 
than a patent of the town of Gravesend to a woman. 
For, though with her were associated her son, Sir 
Henry Moody, " Barronett," the ensign, George 
Baxter,' and Sergeant James Hubbard, "Ye hon- 
oured Lady Deborah Moody " was the chief paten- 
tee. It was she who led the colony hither, who 
dreamed of future prosperity and peace, who wisely 
planned its agricultural and commercial develop- 
ment, who opened its doors to wayfarers of what- 
ever creed, and who for thirteen years gave to it 
the benign influence of a refined and accomplished 
woman of more than ordinary power of mind. 

There is little from which to reconstruct the life 

' Afterward, with no honourable record, English secretary to Kieft. 
He was appointed at a salary of two hundred and fifty guilders the 
year, " in consideration of his talents and knowledge of the English 
Language and of Law." In 1663, he appeared before Parliament to 
incite the conquest of Nieuw Nederlandt, and returned thither with 
the English army. 

104 



DEBORAH LADY MOODY. 105 

of this colonial heroine. Born Deborah Dunch of 
Avesbury, a kinswoman of Oliver Cromwell,* she 
married the baronet, Sir Henry Moody, one of 
James's later creations, and was early widowed. 
The life of an English dowager may easily have 
been a fettered one to this young woman of excep- 
tional force. She incurred the displeasure of the 
inquisitorial Star Chamber by a too long sojourn in 
London, and the paper exists in which " Dame 
Deborah Mowdie " and others are ordered to return 
to their "hereditaments" within forty days. In 
1640, eight years after her husband's death, she 
came to Massachusetts and joined the church of 
Salem,^ but was allotted four hundred acres of land 
at Lynn." The next year she bought the Swamps- 
cott farm of John Humphrey for £\ 100.^ 

But it was a time and place of fierce theological 
disputation and ecclesiastical tyranny. Roger Wil- 
liams had sowed good seed before his flight, and 
there were not a few intelligent, clear-headed men 

' Her father was a member of Parliament in the reign of Elizabeth. 
The family had been always staunch supporters of the people and of 
constitutional rights. 

** Admitted April 5, 1640. 

^ Granted by the General Court, May 13, 1640. It was still in her 
possession in 1649, as shown by letters from her agent to Daniel 
King, tenant of the farm at Lynn. That she retained her property 
in Salem, also, is indicated by the note in Felt's History of Salem, — 
"November 4th, 1650: Dreadful tempest. Lady Moody's House 
unroofed." 

■* In Thomas Lechford's Plain Dealing, or, A^evves from New 
Englattd, written in 1642, he says: "The Lady Moody lives at 
Lynn but is of Salem Church. She is (good lady) almost undone by 
buying Master Humphries farm at Swampscott which cost her g 
or iioo pounds." 



I06 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

and women ready, if need be, again to forsake home 
and friends to exercise the right of free thought. 
By birth and position as well as by masterful traits 
of character. Lady Moody was a natural leader. 
When she was arraigned before the church of Salem, 
for the grave heresy of questioning if the rite of 
infant baptism be of divine appointment,' she had 
many sympathisers who soon joined her in seeking 
a new home.* 

Governor Winthrop mentions her case briefly : 
" In 1643, Lady Moody was in the Colony of Massa- 
chusetts, a wise and anciently religious woman, but 
being taken with the error of denying baptism to 
infants was dealt with by many of the elders, and 
admonished by the Church of Salem, but persisting 
still, and to avoid further trouble she removed to 
New Netherlands, against the advice of her friends. 
Many others affected with Anabaptism moved there 
also." The next year Endicott writes Winthrop 
not to permit her return to Massachusetts, " ffor shee 
is a dangerous woman." ' 

' " Dec. 14, 1642. At the Quarterly Court, Lady Deborah Moody, 
Mrs. King and the wife of John Tilton were presented for houlding 
that the baptism of infants is not ordained of God." — Lynn Records. 

^ " June 12, 1643 : Lady Deborah Moody is admonished here for 
denying infant baptism. To avoid further trouble she moves among 
the Dutch on Long Island where she exerted considerable influence. 
She was afterward excommunicated by the Salem Church. Many 
while embracing her ideas on Baptism removed from the colony 
and followed her." — Lynn Records. 

About this time, the Reverend Thomas Cobbett, of Lynn, writes 
John Winthrop that " My Lady Moody is to sitt down on Long 
Island, from vnder civil and church watch, among the Dutch." 

•* Later, a reciprocal friendship and exchange of good offices existed 



LADY MOODY'S LIBRARY. IO7 

As the head of this enterprise, Judge Benson calls 
Lady Moody the Dido leading the colony. An 
equivocal comparison this, for there could be slight 
resemblance between the fair and frail Phcenician 
princess, and the grave Puritan dame whose habits 
of thought and closet companions are shown by the 
list of books belonging to her son, in an inventory 
made shortly after her death. It is for the time 
and place, a most noteworthy collection : 

"Cathologus contining the names of such books 
as Sir Henry Moodie had left in securitie in hands 
of Daniel Litscho wen hy went for Virginia : — 

"A latyn Bible in folio. 

" A written book in folio contining private matters 
of State.' 

** A written book contining private matters of the 
King. 

between Lady Moody and the younger Winthrop, as shown by the 
following, one of many similar letters, written in 1649 : 

" Wurthi Sur. My respective love to you, remembering and 
acknowledging your many kindnesses and respect to me. I have 
v/ritten divers lines to you, but I doubt you have not received it. At 
present being in haste I cannot unlay myselfe, but my request is 
yt you will be pleased by this note, if in your wisdom you see not a 
convenienter opertunitie to send me those things yt Mr. Throg- 
morton bought for me, and I understand are with you, for I am in 
greate neede of ym, together with Marke Lucar's chest and other 
things, 

"So, with my respective love to you & your wife & Mrs. Locke 
remembered, hoping you and they with youre children are in helth, 
I rest ; committing you to ye protection of ye Almighty. Pray re- 
member my necessity in this thing. 

" Deborah Moody." 

' Sir Henry Moody, the elder, had held a confidential position at 
the Court of James L 



I08 EARLY LONG 1 SLA AW. 

" Seventeen severall books of devinitie matters. 

" A dictionarius of Latin and English. 

" Sixteen severall latin and Italian books of divers 
matters. 

" A book in folio contining the voage of Ferdinant 
Mendoz, &c. 

" A book in folio Kalleth Sylva Sylvarum. 

" A book in quarto Kalleth bartas' six days work 
of the lord and translated in English by 
Joshua Sylvester. 

" A Book in quarto Kalleth the Summe and Sub- 
stans of the conference which it pleased 
His Excellent Maj^'* to have with the lords, 
bishops &c at Hampton Court Contracteth 
by William Barlow. 

" A book in quarto Kalleth Ecclesiastica Inter- 
pretatio, or the Expositions upon the Seven 
Epistles calleth Catholique and the Revela- 
tion collected by John Mayer. 

" Eleven several books more of divers substants. 

" The verification of his father's knights order 
given by King James. 

" Notarial Register of 

" Solomon La Chaire. 

" N. P. of Nieuw Amsterdam. Anno 1661." 

One is led into pleasant speculation as to what 
may have been the twenty-seven " books of divers 
matters." Herein doubtless lay the best riches of 
the collection. 

The seashore region to which Lady Moody came 
had been already named by Kieft from Graven- 



RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. I09 

sande ' on the Maas, although it is often wrongly- 
assumed to be a namesake of the English Graves- 
end. In 1639, the Director-General had granted a 
plantation within its limits to Anthonie Jansen van 
Salee, who was its first settler. Four years later, he 
was given a hundred morgens of land " over against 
't Conijen Eylandt." ^ It is curious to note the sharj) 
contrasts in the life of this pioneer, a Hollander, 
long a dweller among the Moors on the African 
coast, but it is these contrasts which give to our 
early history its dramatic character. 

There is little doubt from the frequent references 
to such a document, that an informal patent was 
given the founder of the colony on her arrival in 
June, 1643. But the paper was soon lost, or de- 
stroyed, and it was more than two years before the 
unique patent to Lady Moody was made out. It 
shows the influence of the enlightened patentee, 
particularly in the clause which assured liberty of 
religious opinion. Worship was to be " without 
molestation or distruction from any madgistrate, or 
madgistrates, or other ecclesiastical minister that 
may p'tend iurisdiction over them, with libertie like- 
wise to ye s"^ pattentees, theyr associates, heyrs and 
assigns to erect a body pollitiquc and civill combina- 

' The Count's Strand, wliere the Counts of Holland held their Court 
before its removal to The Hague — 'T Hagen (hedge) along the 
beautiful Vyver. In some old records the name appears as Cravens 
End. 

'■' A morgen was two and one-tenth acres. This grant on the site 
of Unionville was made May 27, 1643. In 1644, Cuisbert Op Dyk 
received forty-four morgens covering part of Coney Island, and 
November 29, 1649, eighty morgens were given to Robert Pennoyer. 



no EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

tion among themselves as free men of this Province 
and of the Towne of Gravesend, and to make such 
civill ordinances as the maior part of ye Inhabitants 
ffree of ye towne shall think flatting for theyr quiet 
and peaceable subsistence." The only concession 
to Dutch usages was the provision that New Style 
should be used, together with the weights and 
measures of Nieuw Nederlandt. 

At the beginning of the Indian war which stained 
with blood the chronicles of 1643, the new-comers 
sought brief refuge in Nieuw Amersfoordt, but re- 
turned to their home in the early fall. In October, 
Lady Moody and her forty followers, whose abso- 
lute loyalty was hers, there held their ground, under 
the leadership of Nicholas Stillwell against a fierce 
onslaught of the invading Indians — the same insati- 
ate band who had murdered Anne Hutchinson but 
a month before.' 

The village was soon laid out, a square of sixteen 
acres surrounded by a street, — the " Hye-waye," and 
cut by two cross-streets with four smaller squares. 
These were each divided into ten lots, on which the 
owners built around a " common yard " for cattle in 
the centre. The farms, or " Planters' Lots " as they 
were called, were triangular, bordering the street 
which encompassed the town. It had already been 
voted in Town Meeting that those who held planta- 
tions should be given a hundred acres of upland, 

' "These Indians passed on to Long Island and there assaulted 
the Lady Moody in her house divers times, for there were forty men 
gathered there to defend it." — Winthrop's Hist. New England, vol. 
ii., p. 164. 



THE TOWN BOOKS. Ill 

and meadow in proportion to the number of their 
cattle. It was further enacted that those owners of 
land who did not build a " good house " before the 
end of May, 1644, should forfeit their land to the 
town. 

About this time George Baxter wrote from " Man- 
hatoes Island " to John Winthrop, the younger: " I 
have some interest in a place not yet settled on 
Long Island, and so commodious that I have not 
scene or knowne a better." Here it was that Lady 
Moody hoped to found a commercial city for which 
the situation seemed favourable. But the anchorage 
of the bay was not sufficient for large vessels, and 
her attention was necessarily turned to agriculture. 
Deeds of 1650, and of 1654, record the purchase of 
more land from the Canarsies with whom they sus- 
tained most friendly relations.' 

The Town Books give a continuous record from 
1646, and are a good example of that primitive de- 
mocracy which has moulded the institutions of our 
country. Although never present in the " Tunge- 
mote," it is quite certain that Deborah, Lady Moody, 
was the controlling influence of its deliberations. 
As in all these early records in which Long Island 
is peculiarly rich, there is much minute legislation, 

' One of the Dutch indwellers writes from Gravesend to the Di- 
rector-General, September 8, 1655, that they are sorely threatened 
by the Indians, and adds: "We hear strange reports from Heem- 
stede, Newtown and elsewhere, that the Indians intend to pitch out 
the Dutch from among the English in order to destroy them. . . . 
The water is already up to our lips, and if we once leave here Long 
Island is no longer inhabitable l>y Dutch people." — N. Y. Colonial 
Documents^ vol, xiii., p. 40. 



112 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

much which throws a strong h'ght upon the creeds, 
the habits of thought, and the manners of the time. 
Absence from Town Meeting was punished by a fine 
of five guilders. One was not then lightly to shirk 
the serious duties of citizenship. 

The English Towns within the Dutch jurisdiction 
were allowed to appoint their own officers, subject 
to the approval of the Director-General. In 1654, 
Stuyvesant removed from of^ce George Baxter and 
James Hubbard, for alleged violation of certain con- 
ditions of the patent. It was only through the good 
ofifices of Lady Moody that the excitement was 
quieted, and that henceforth no objection was made 
to the nominations of the freemen. But though a 
mutual admiration and trust existed between the 
Lady Moody and the brave Stuyvesant, the people 
of Nieuw Amsterdam regarded this independent 
township with grave disfavour. "The scum of all 
New England is drifting into Nieuw Nederlandt," 
wrote the Domine Megapolensis. 

The circumstances, or the exact time, of Lady 
Moody's death are not known. Contemporary 
documents show her to have been living in Novem- 
ber, 1658, and that her death occurred before the 
next spring. She probably lies in one of the many 
nameless graves in the old burial-ground ' in the 
centre of the Southwest Town Square. 

The people of Gravesend were widely condemned 
as Memnonists, or Anabaptists,^ but it is thought 

' There was no other until 1688, when the will of John Tilton left 
land " for all Friends in the everlasting truthe of the Gospell as 
occasion serves, forever, to bury theyre dead therein." 

^ Their chief tenets were negative, in the rejection of infant bap- 



THE CHANGE OF FLAGS. II3 

that before her death Lady Moody accepted the 
belief of the Friends, The first Quaker meeting in 
America was held at her house in 1657, by Richard 
Hodgson and two associates, ones of that party of 
eleven propagandists who had then crossed the 
ocean. From their welcome here, Gravesend was 
called the " Mecca of Quakerism," and here their 
prophet, George Fox, came from Maryland on his 
first visit to America. 

From its English occupancy, or more probably 
from its easy approach, Gravesend was the spot in 
Nieuw Nederlandt first to feel the tread of the in- 
vading English soldiery. August 25, 1664, Colonel 
Nicoll landed on the shore where, just one hundred 
and twelve years after, Lord Howe disembarked his 
troops, and marched to the Breuckelen Ferry at the 
head of three hundred regulars. In the reorganisa- 
tion of government which followed the seizure of 
Nieuw Nederlandt, Gravesend was little affected. 
In 1668, the Court of Sessions was removed from 
Flatbush to Gravesend, where the first Court House 
of Kings County was then built. Eighteen years 

tism, the institution of the Sabbath, and an ordained ministry. In 
the spring of 1660, a few inhabitants of Gravesend petition Stuy- 
vesant to send them a clergyman, begging " very respectfully to show 
the licentious mode of living, the desecration of the Sabbath, the 
confusion of religious opinion prevalent in this village, so that many 
have grown cold in the exercise of the Christian virtues and almost 
surpass the heathen who have no knowledge of God and his Com- 
mandments. The Words of the wise King Solomon are applicable 
here, that when Prophecy ceases the people grow savage and licen- 
tious, and as the fear of the Lord alone holds out promises of tem- 
poral and eternal blessings, we, your petitioners, humbly petition, 
&c." — Colonial Documents of New York, vol. xiv., p. 460. 



114 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

after, the Court was restored to Flatbush. In 1693, 
Gravesend became one of the three ports of entry 
for Long Island. 

Although surrounded by the Dutch Towns, and 
having many Hollanders within its limits, so distinc- 
tively had Gravesend maintained its English charac- 
ter, that there were no religious services in the Dutch 
language until far into the eighteenth century. The 
first mention of a church is in 1763, when its register 
begins. 

In 166 r, Dirckde Wolf obtained from the Amster- 
dam Chamber a monopoly of the salt works in Nieuw 
Nederlandt. The manufacture was carried on at 
Coney Island, of which he then received a grant. 
The people of Gravesend claimed the island ' and 
forced him to leave, although a body of soldiers 
had been sent for his protection. Coney Island — 
'T Conijen Eylandt ' — in those days comprised 
some eighty acres of land. If Verrazano's Rela- 
tion is verified, it was the first spot in the New 
World between Florida and the vague Norumbega 
touched by European foot. It must then, with 
its cedar-crowned knolls and grassy dells, have 
been a very different scene from the one we know. 
Nowhere has the devastation of the sea been more 
marked. The patent to Lady Moody gives" Libertie 
to the saide pattentees, their associates, heyres and 
assigns to put what cattle they shall think fitting to 

' A patent thereof had been given to Guisbert op Dyk, May 24, 
1644. 

''■ Judge Benson says the name, usually referred to the abundance 
of rabbits, " conijen," is from a Dutch family named Conyen, but, 
by M. d'Iberville, in 1 701, it is called Isle des Lapins. 



'T CON/JEN EYLANDT. II5 

feed or graze upon the afforesaid Conyne Island." 
Thirty years later, Bankers and Sluyter write in 
their Journal, that it is "covered with bushes. No- 
body lives upon it, but it is used in winter for keep- 
ing cattle, horses, oxen, hogs and others, which arc 
able to obtain there sufificient to eat the whole win- 
ter and to shelter themselves from cold, it being 
much warmer than Long Island or Nieuw Amster- 
dam." 

With such changes in topography and in occupa- 
ion, one can well fancy the eternal waves surprised' 
at the metamorphosis wrought, as but two brief 
centuries after. Vanity Fair has reared its booths 
on its white, fast receding sands. 



O -.J^r^ 15^-^ 




VII. 



THE NORTH RIDING OF YORKSHIRE. 



WHILE the Hollander and the Huguenot 
were impressing their character on the 
extreme west of Long Island, there was 
no organised attempt at the colonisation of the 
region now known as Queens County. 

As already said, in January, 1639, Kieft had 
bought from the Chief of the Manhassets, all the 
land east of Rockaway to Fire Island, and north to 
Martin Gerretsen's Bay, thus adding the Indian title 
to the Dutch rights of discovery. But a few iso- 
lated plantations, an occasional bouwerie and a 
nominal jurisdiction, alone represented the owner- 
ship by Nieuw Nederlandt. Meanwhile, New Eng- 
land men soon began to possess the land. 

The Queen's County has borne but two cen- 
turies its regal name, given in honour of the 
poor, homesick Catharine of Braganza. The first 
settlements within its domain were known as the 
English Towns, and distinctly acknowledged the 
Dutch supremacy. After the English capture of 
Nieuw Nederlandt, in the Hempstead Convention 

116 



YORKSHIRE AND ITS RIDINGS. WJ 

of 1664, Long Island, Staten Island, and West- 
chester County were erected into the single ad- 
ministrative district of Yorkshire. The present 
Suffolk County formed its East Riding ; Staten 
Island, the Five Dutch Towns, Newtown, and 
Gravesend made the West Riding ; while West- 
chester County with the Long Island townships of 
Flushing, Jamaica, Hempstead, and Oyster Bay 
were incorporated as the North Riding. This divi- 
sion continued until the Ridings were abolished by 
Governor Dongan nearly twenty years later. The 
existing system of counties was established by the 
Colonial Assembly, November i, 1683, with the ad- 
ditional Duke's County, comprising Martha's Vine- 
yard, Nantucket and the Elizabeth Islands, and the 
County of Cornwall, organised from the far away 
Pemaquid. 

The first attempt of the English to establish 
themselves within the present bounds of Queens 
County, was in the township of Hempstead, and in 
the spring of 1640. As Winthrop quaintly begins 
the story of their thwarted efforts : " Divers in- 
habitants of Linne finding themselves straitened, 
looked out for a new plantation and agreed with 
Lord Sterling's agent there, one Mr. Farret, for a 
parcel of the isle near west end, and agreed with 
the Indians for their right." ' It is elsewhere noted 

' Winthrop continues his account as follows : " The Dutch hearing 
this and making claim to that part of the island by a former pur- 
chase of the Indians, sent men to take possession of the place, and 
to set up the Arms of the Prince of Orange upon a tree. The Linne 
men sent ten or twelve men with provisions, etc. , who began to build 



Il8 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

that they bought of Farret, for four bushels of 
maize, the privilege of buying from the Indians a 
tract of land, eight miles square, wherever they 
might choose to establish themselves. 

The Dutch possessed at this time, by purchase 
from the Indians, as well as by right of Adrian 
Block's discoveries in the Onriist, and by actual 
occupation, the land, as far east as Oyster Bay, 
while the part of the Island farther to the east 
was still in the hands of the Indians. Long before, 
William Alexander, later, first Earl of Sterling, am- 
bitious to found a New Scotland that might rival 
New France and New England, received from 
James I., in 162 1, a grant for " Nova Scotia," which 
included Long Island. His son. Viscount of Canada, 

and took down the prince's arms, and in place thereof, an Indian 
had drawn an unhandsome face. The Dutch took this in high dis- 
pleasure, and sent soldiers and fetched away their men and impris- 
oned them a few days, and then took an oath of them and so 
discharged them. Upon this, the Linne men (finding themselves 
too weak and having no encouragement to expect aid from the 
English) deserted the place and took another at the East end of 
the same island. . . . Upon this occasion the Dutch Governour, 
one William Kyfte (a discreet man), wrote to our Governour com- 
plaint of the English usurpation both at Connecticut, and now also 
on Long Island, and of the abuse offered to the prince's arms, etc., 
and thereupon excused his imprisoning our men. To which our 
Governour returned answer (in Latin, his letter being also in the 
same) that our desire had always been to hold peace and good cor- 
respondency with all our neighbours, and though m'c would not 
maintain any of our countrymen in an unjust Action, yet we might 
not suffer them to be injured, etc. As for our neighbours in Con- 
necticut, etc., he knew they were not under our Governour, and for 
those at Long Island they went voliuitarily from us." — History of 
New England, vol. ii., p. 5. 



THE GRANT TO LORD STERLING. II9 

and Earl of Sterling, gained from the Plymouth 
Company, April 22, 1635, a patent for the " County 
of Canada, Long Island, and Islands adjacent." 
The Plymouth Company surrendered their rights 
to the Crown in June, and the next year, the grant 
to Lord Sterling was confirmed by King Charles. 

Lord Sterling's claim was long maintained by his 
heirs, direct and collateral. In 1663, Henry, Earl 
of Sterlynge, petitioned for these lands conveyed 
to his grandfather, " being part of New England 
and an Island adjacent called Long Island, with 
power of judicature to be held of the Council per 
gladium contitatus. . . . Your petitioner's grand- 
father and father and himself theyre heyre, have 
respectively enjoyed the same and have at great 
coste planted many places on the Island, but of late 
the Dutch have intruded on several parts thereof." 

In reply, the Earl of Clarendon, on behalf of 
James, promised to pay him for his interest in Long 
Island ^^3500, which it is needless to say he never 
received. In 1674, in consideration of "releasing 
all pretence of Right and title to the Colony of 
New York in America, whereof Long Island is a 
part," the Duke did grant to the said Earl of Ster- 
ling, a " Pension of 300 pounds P. Ann. out of the 
surplusage of the Neat Proffits and Revenue of the 
said Colony, all manner of charges civil and military 
being deducted. . . . But there have not accrued 
any Neat Proffits . . . and we at Hampton Court, 
August 1689, humbly offer our opinion that the 
pension and arrears be paid. 

" Approved by the King." 



120 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

But approval was not payment; and in 1760, the 
then Earl of Sterling appealed to King George, re- 
hearsing the above statement ; " James, Duke of 
York having the design to plant an English colony 
between the Rivers of Connecticut and Delaware by 
name of the Province of New York and to drive 
the Dutch from their settlement at Nieuw Amster- 
dam, and hearing much of the goodness of the soil 
of the Island of Sterling, or Long Island, made ap- 
plication to Henry, Earl of Sterling, to purchase 
his right and title, and in 1663, the Earl of Sterling 
agreed to sell the said Island for ^T/ooo, but the 
same not being paid, he did not convey his title to 
the Duke of York." Frequent application for pay- 
ment was of no avail; a compromise was made for a 
pension of ^300, also never paid, hence William, 
Earl of Sterling, the present petitioner, prayed that 
the i^7000 and arrears of interest be paid, or, failing 
payment, that " the unoccupied lands on the Island 
of Sterling be restored to him." 

In 1637 Lord Sterling gave a power of attorney to 
James Farret ' to sell any part of his land on the 
Island, and through Farret's negotiations with Lieu- 
tenant Howe, the English claims overlapped the 
Dutch possessions. 

Then a sloop was bought, and a party of eight 
men under Lieutenant Daniel Howe started to ex- 
plore the " Island of Paumanacke " of which they 
fancied themselves the owners. These " Linne 
Men " set out in the last days of April. Rounding 

' In Silas Wood's Sketch of Long Island, and elsewhere, Farret's 
name is given as Andrew Forrester. 



THE LAND- FALL AT MANHASSET. 121 

Cape Cod, and passing the alluring entrance to Nar- 
ragansett Bay, they came into the Sound by the un- 
familiar Race, and coasted the northern shore of 
Matouwacks. The low beach, and the sheer cliffs of 
its eastern borders did not attract them. They 
passed on, by one and another fair haven, wooded 
to its reedy margin, until, early in May, they entered 
Cow Bay,' between sloping hills misty in the faint 
green haze of budding foliage. The dogwood was 
in bloom, and the wild apple opening its pink buds. 
Landing near the head of the bay, probably on the 
west side of Cow Neck, near the Indian village of 
Manhasset, they found open meadows, blue with 
violets and starred with early cinquefoil, and rich 
fields along the stream which there entered the 
bay. 

The Dutch had already asserted their ownership 
by affixing to a tree the arms of the Prince of 
Orange. Howe pulled down the insignia, derisively 
replacing the rampant lion of Nassau by " an un- 
handsome face." A rude cabin was hastily put up, 
and another well under way, when interruption came. 
The friendly sachem, Pennawitz, had told Kieft of 
the new-comers at 'T Schout's Bale, and the Secre- 
tary van Tienhoven was sent at once. May 13th, in 

' Then called 'T Schout's Bale, later, Howe's Bay, described by van 
Tienhoven as " very open and navigable, with one river running into 
it. On said river are also fine maize lands, level and not stony, with 
right beautiful valleys. Beyond said river is a very convenient hook 
of land, somewhat large, encircled by a large river and valley, where 
all description of cattle can be reared and fed, such convenience be- 
ing a great accommodation for the settlers who must otherwise search 
for their cattle several days in the bush," 



122 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

the yacht Prinz Willem, to arrest the " Foreign 
strollers." The entire party consisted of eight men, 
one woman, and her infant. Howe made his escape. 
Edwin Howell, Job Sayre, and four others were 
taken to Fort Amsterdam and imprisoned for three 
days. When examined before the Council, they 
made the defence that their settlement was author- 
ised by Farret, in whose right they had believed. 
Their innocent intention was obvious, and they were 
released on their promise to leave the region on 
which they had trespassed and to go beyond the 
limit of Dutch occupation. 

This they did, sailing down the Sound through 
Plum Gut and Gardiner's Bay into Peconic Bay, and 
landed, June 12, 1640, where the hamlet of North 
Sea later grew up. Thus leading immediately to 
the planting of Southhampton, the adventure of the 
Linne men was not without result. 

In the Clarendon Papers, Edward Hyde thus re- 
lates the affair : " In the yeare 1641, Captain Daniell 
How and other Englishmen purchased a considera- 
ble tract of land of the Indian proprietours on the 
western part of Long Isl"? Beginning to settle 
themselves, the affores'^ Govern"" Kieft sent a com- 
pany of Souldiers and seized the psons of the s*^ Eng- 
lish, putting them in Irons, prisoners to Holland, 
vnlesse they would promise him to desarte the 
s^ plaice, thereby forcing them to quit their right 
and interest they had thereunto." 

Lechford, in his Plain Dealing, or Nevves from 
New-England, tells the story as follows : " Long 
Island has begun to be planted, and some two min- 



FARRET'S PERSISTENCE. 123 

isters have gone there, or are to goe, as our Master 
Pierson and Master Knowles. A Church was gath- 
ered for that Island at Lynne in the Bay, whence 
some by reason of straitnesse did remove to the 
saide Island. The Patent is granted to Lord Star- 
ling, but the Dutch claime part of the Island, or the 
whole, for their plantation is right over against and 
not far from the South end of the same Isle. And 
on Lieut. Howe pulling down the Dutch arms on the 
Isle, there was like to be great stir whatever may 
come of it." 

Farret did not relinquish his claim to the Island, 
and attempted negotiations with the Dutch. The 
" Remonstrance of Nieuw Nederlandt " addressed to 
the States-General, in 1649, says: " We shall treat 
of Long Island more at length because the English 
greatly hanker after it. In 1640, a Scotchman came 
to Director Kieft with an English Commission, but 
his pretensions were not much respected. He there- 
fore departed without having accomplished anything 
except imposing on the lower classes." 

The time passed and no colonisation was to be 
effected under the protection of Lord Sterling's sup- 
posed ownership of the Island. The English settle- 
ment of Queens County was to receive a different 
impetus, a movement already preparing on the 
opposite shore of the Sound. 




VIII. 



THE STAMFORD MIGRATION. 



AMONG the many more or less false accounts 
of the Lynn adventure, even Trumbull mis- 
takes the course of events which led to the 
planting of Queens County. He confuses this abor- 
tive attempt with the systematic settlement of the 
Hempstead township four years later, in saying, 
" Captain Howe and other Englishmen in behalf of 
Connecticut purchased a large tract of land of the 
Indians, the original proprietors on Long Island. 
This tract extended from the east part of Oyster Bay 
to the western part of Home's or Holme's Bay to 
the middle of the Great Plain. Settlement was im- 
mediately begun on the land and by 1642 had made 
considerable advancement." ' 

But the while, events had been long in train which 
were to lead to the real occupation of the land. In 
1630, Sir Richard Saltonstall, an honourable knight, 
comrade of John Winthrop, brought with him to 

' History of Connecticut, vol. i., p. 119. Home's or Holme's Bay 
is a name found only in the above extract. It is probably a mere 
clerical error for Howe's Bay. 

124 



SIJ? RICHARD SALTONSTALL'S COMPANY. \2% 

Massachusetts Bay a worthy company who planted 
Watertown. The westward course of enapire waited 
not for Bishop Berkeley's prophetic verse. Attracted 
to the richer lands of the Connecticut River, (" Heer- 
ing of the fame of the Conighticute river, they had 
a hankering mind after it "), impelled by some of 
the theological disputes which were the true animus 
of nearly every New England movement, part of the 
little band, " the civil and religious founders of Con- 
necticut," journeyed through the forests and founded 
Wethersfield, at first called Watertown. 

This was in the summer of 1635. It was May 29, 
1635, that they were dismissed from the church of 
Watertown, Massachusetts, " to form a nevve 
Church couennte in this River of Connecticot." But 
it was not long before the new church, also, " fell into 
unhappie contentions and animosities." By the ad- 
vice of Mr. Davenport, the malcontents were induced 
to move southward to the Sound, obtaining from 
New Haven ' the right to all the lands the Colony 
had bought of the Indians at Rippowam, afterward 
Stamford. In the spring of 1641, some of the men 
came to begin a clearing and first break ground. By 
fall, over thirty families were there, and warmly 
housed for the winter in their well-banked log 
cabins. 

The earliest Records of Stamford are faded, 
crumbling, and timeworn. As far as can be de- 
ciphered, the first entry in the Town Book is as 
follows : 

' The General Court of New Haven gave a title-deed to Robert 
Coe and Andrew Ward of Wethersfield, November 14, 1640. 



126 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

" These men whose names are underwritten have 
bound themselves under paine of forfeiture of 5 lb. 
a man to goe or send to Rippowam to begin and 
prosecute the design of a plantation there, by the 
i6th of May next, the rest of the families there by 
ye last of November, viz. : 

Ri. Denton Jer. Wood 

Ma. Mitchell Sam Clark 

Thurs. Raynor Sam Sherman 

Robert Coe Jon. Wood 

And. Ward Thos. Wickes 

Hen. Smith Jer. Jagger 

V'ncent Simpkins J. Jessopp 

Ri. Gildersleeve Jo. Seaman 

Edm. Wood Dan Fitch 

Jo Wood Jo Northend " 

The band from Wethersfield were led by their 
pastor the Reverend Richard Denton, a most note- 
worthy man.' Little is known of his relation to the 

^ Richard Denton, born in Yorkshire, 1586, was graduated in Cam- 
bridge in 1623. He was the minister of Colby Chapel, Halifax, and 
with many of his congregation came to America with Winthrop. He 
settled in Watertown in 1630, whence he came to Wethersfield, to 
Stamford, and finally to Hempstead, on which infant town he left a 
deep impress. There he remained until 1659, returning to England 
but three years before his death. He was claimed by the Presby- 
terians, but his liberal tendencies were all toward Independency. 
His epitaph shows the contemporary measure of the man. 

" Hie jacet et fruitur Tranquilla sede Richardus Dentonus cujus 

Fama perennis erit. 
In cola jam coeli velut Astra micantia fulget 
Que multes Fidei Lumina Clara dedit." 

But the most curious mention of him is by Cotton Mather : " The 
apostle describing the false ministers of those primitive times calls 



RICHARD DENTON. 12/ 

disturbance in Wethersfield, but it speaks for the 
weight of his personality, that he carried with him 
the greater part of the little community. 

They came to Stamford to repeat the story of 
Wethersfield. But this time, at least, the discord 
arose from no theological hair-splitting. It was a 
manly protest against the attempted theocracy of 
New Haven, which limited suffrage to the members 
of the Church. In 1643, Mr. Denton and a few ad- 
herents resolved once more to adventure for a new 
home and a more liberal polity. Land was bought 
of the Indians on the North Side of Long Island by 
Robert Fordham and John Carman. They were 
drawn hither by Captain Underhill's glowing report 
of the country through which he had pursued the 
Canarsies. The next spring a few families from 

them ' clouds without water, carried about of winds.' As for the 
true men of our primitive times, they were indeed ' carried about of 
winds ' though not winds of strange doctrine, yet the winds of hard 
suffering did carry him as far as from England into America : the 
hurricanos of persecution wherein doubtless the ' Prince of the 
powers of Air ' had its influence, drove the heavenly clouds from one 
part of the heavenly churcli into another. But they were not clouds 
without waters, when they came with showers of blessings and rained 
very gracious impressions upon the vineyard of the Lord. Among 
these clouds \va.s our pious and learned Mr. Richard Denton of York- 
shire, who having watered Halifax in England with his fruitful min- 
istry, was by a tempest then tossed into New England where first at 
Weathersfield and then at Stamford, ' his doctrine dropped as the 
rain, his speech distilled as the dew.' 

" Tho' he was a little man he had a great soul: his well-accom- 
plished mind in his lesser body was as an Iliad in a nutshell. I think 
he was blind of one eye ; not the less he was not least among the 
seers of Israel. He saw a very considerable portion of those things 
which 'eye' hath not seen.'" — Magnalia Christi, vol. i., p. 398. 



128 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

Rippovvam crossed the Sound to the " East side 
of Martin Gerrctsen's,' or Cow Bay, and thence 
penetrated to the inland plantations the Dutch had 
already named Heemstede." 

No point has been more difficult to determine 
than the exact location of this Bay. There are de- 
scriptions which apply only to Hempstead Harbour. 
It certainly was not Cow Bay, which was 'T Schout's 
Bale, or Howe's Bay of the Lynn episode. The 
maps, the surveys, the legal records, and the descrip- 
tions of the time are very vague. From a mass of 
contradictory statements, the most certain deduction 
is in favour of Little Neck Bay; but it is probable 
that the name was loosely given by different writers 
to any one of the beautiful bays which indent the 
northern shore of Queens. 

An Indian deed describes its grant as extending 
from " Sint-Sink or Schout's Bay to Martin Gerrct- 
sen's Bay," but does not give the direction. A 
Dutch manuscript speaks of " Martinne-concq, alias 
Hog's Neck, or Hog's Island " (the headland east of 
Hempstead Harbour), as being at Martin Gerrct- 
sen's Ba)^ Secretary van Tienhoven in his Infor- 
mation Relative to Lands in Nieuw Nederlandt, 

' Martin Gerretben van Bergen was one of the Council of Nieuw 
Amsterdam, 1633-36. 

* " Named after the neatest and most important village on the 
Island of Schouwen in Zealand," says Mr. Brodhead. Schouwen, or 
Landt van Zierch See, is the most northern island in tliis archipelagic 
province. Fifteen miles in length by five in width, it is protected 
on every side by dykes. That there are in Holland several villages 
of this endearing name, expresses well the domestic character of the 
Dutch people. 



MARTIN GERRETSEN'S BAY. 1 29 

1650, after writing of Oyster Bay, says : " Martin 
Gerretsen's Bay, or Martinnehoeck,' is nriuch deeper 
and wider than Oyster Bay and runs westward and 
divides in three rivers, two of which are navigable." 
By these might well be meant Glen Cove Creek, 
Roslyn Creek, and a third inlet near Glenwood. 
"The land," he continues, "is mostly level and of 
good quality for grass and for raising all kinds of 
cattle. On the rivers are numerous valleys of sweet 
and salt meadows." Van Tienhoven led the expe- 
dition sent to expel the Linne men from Cow Bay, 
but this description is distinctly of Hempstead Har- 
bour and its environment. In 1659, Stuyvesant 
granted Govert Lockermann and others, " a parcel 
of land situate in Martin Gerretsen's Bay, called in the 
Indian tongue, Martinecough, or Hog's Neck, or 
Hog's Island, it being in times of High Water an 
Island." This spot, now called Centre Island, they 
sold to the town of Oyster Bay in 1665, still calling 
the land at Martin Gerretsen's Bay, although it lay 
on Oyster Bay Harbour, but_ half a mile from the 
village of Oyster Bay. This palpable error shows 
the fallibility of even legal documents. 

In correction of the above, we find in the Town 
Records of Hempstead, Book B, p. 33, mention of 
the " Land lying eastward at Martinecock, westward 
at Matthew Garrison's Bay," while on page 162, 
" Privileges upon Matthew Garrison's Neck and at 
Matinacock " are named. Kieft's Patent to the 
Stamford Immigrants of 1644 gives land from 

' Hence, Martinnecock was, possibly, not an Indian name. Dutch 
and Indian etymologies are often confused and intermingled. 
9 



130 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

Hempstead Harbour, westward to Martin Gerret- 
sen's Bay. His Patent to the town of Flushing, in 
1645, " extends eastward as far as Martin Gerretsen's 
Bay, from the head whereof," etc. The present 
eastern boundary of Flushing runs from the head of 
Little Neck Bay. The description of Martin Ger- 
retsen's Bay in the Indian grant of Hempstead, 1658, 
and in Dongan's Patent, both answer to Little Neck 
Bay. More specifically, in entries in the Town Book, 
B, p. 35, is mentioned " the Little Neck lying on the 
East side of Matthew Gerritsen's Bay, which neck is 
commonly called Madnan's Neck," — now Great 
Neck. Still another entry in Book B, is final, forc- 
ing the conclusion that Little Neck Bay, on the west 
of Great Neck, is the one to which this much dis- 
puted name belonged. In 1665, it records that 
Jonah Fordham of Hempstead sells to John Scott 
" the land bought of Robert Jackson on Madnan's 
Neck one hundred acres which lieth between how's 
Harbour and the bay which is called Mathagarrat- 
son's Bay." This evidence is sustained by the rude 
coast line in " A Piatt off ye situation off ye towns and 
places on ye west end off Long Island to Hemp- 
stead, laid down by Cox Hubbard, July 3, 1666.'" 
Herein, Martin Gerretsen's Bay is the indentation 
next east of Flushing Bay, and corresponding to 
Little Neck Bay. 

November 14, 1644, on the condition that one hun- 
dred families should be settled within five years, Kieft, 
who by order of the States-General had bought of 
Pennawitz all lands on Long Island within the limits 

' See New York Colonial Documents, vol. xiv. , p. 96, 



MA R TIN GERRE TSEN 'S BAY. 1 3 1 

of Nieuw Nederlanclt, granted a liberal Patent to the 
Stamford colonists.' From the chief Patentee, the 
grassy moors were at first called " Mr. P^ordham's 
Plains." The Patent was for " the Great Plains on 
Long Island from the East River to the South Sea, 
and from a certain Harbour commonly called and 
known as Hempstead Harbour and westward as far 
as Martin Gerretsen's Bay." The Patentees were 
authorised to " use and exercise the Reformed Reli- 
gion which they profess," and to nominate their 
own magistrates, subject to approval by the Director- 
General and the Council at Nieuw Amsterdam. 
A quit-rent of one-tenth^ the products of the soil 
was to be paid to the West India Company, begin- 
ning ten years from the first general peace with the 
Indians. 

The domain was held in common for three years, 
until in 1647, a " Division of Land " was made among 
the sixty-six original owners.' I"or more than a 

' The Patent was made out to 

Robert Fordham John Carman 

John Stricklan John Ogden 

John Lamoree Jonas Wood. 

'From the Town Book of Hempstead, July 10, 1658 : " Ordered 

and Agreed at Generall Town Meeting that Richard CJildersleeve is 

to goe to Manhatan to agree with the Government concerning the 

tythes & it is ordered they are not to exceede 100 schepels of wheate. 

. . . The Chardges of his journey is to be defrayde by the 

Towne." 

' The names are as follows : 

Robert Ashman, Sam Clark, 

Thos. Armitage, Benj. Coe, 

Sam'l Baccus, (?) John Coe, 

John Carman, Robert Coe, 



132 



EARLY LONG ISLAND. 



century, other divisions of the still ungranted por- 
tions of the Common continued to be made. The 
Town Books at frequent intervals record the " No. 
of Akers of medowe given out to the inhabitants of 
Hempstead," while the marshes were long owned in 
common. Town Meetings fixed the day to begin 
cutting the salt grass, before which no one had the 
right to use sickle or scythe. 



On Long Island was 



Dan'l Denton, 
Nath'l Denton, 
Rev'd Richard Denton, 
Richard Denton, Jr., 
Samuel Denton, 
John Ellison, 
John Foulks, 
Rev'd Robert Fordham, 
John Fordham, 
Xtopher Foster, 
Thos. Foster, 
Ri. Gildersleeve, 
John Hicks, 
John Hudd, (?) 
Henry Hudson, 
Thos. Ireland, 
Robert Jackson, 
John Lawrence, 
William Lawrence, 
John Lewis, 
Richard Lewis, 
Roger Lines, 
John Ogden, 
Henry Pierson, 
Thos. Pope, 
Ed. Raynor, 
Wm Raynor, 
Wm Rogers, 



Joseph Scott, 
Wm Scott, 
Simon Bering, 
John Sewell, 
Wm Shadden, 
Thomas Sherman, 
Abraham Smith, 
James Smith, 
John Smith, Sen., 
John Smith, Jun., Rock. 
William Smith, 
Thos. Stephenson, 
John Storye, 
John Strickland, 
Samuel Strickland, 
Nicholas Tanner, 
Mr. Toppin, John, 
William Thickstone, 
Ri. Valentine, 
Wm Washburn e, 
Daniel Whitehead, 
Henry Whitson, 
Thos. Willet, 
Robt. Williams, 
Edmund Wood, Oakham, 
Jeremy Wood, 
Jonas Wood, 
Wood, (?) 



Francis Yat«s. 



THE TEUTONIC MARK. 1 33 

best preserved the land system of our early Ger- 
manic ancestors. There, as in the old Teutonic 
forests, was a distinct if unnamed classification of 
lands into the village mark, of the clustered house- 
lots, the arable mark, or " Planters' Lots," fields 
assigned for cultivation, and the Common mark, 
where the rights of pasturage and of cutting hay 
and wood were in common. 

This system was best exemplified and longest 
maintained on the plains of Hempstead.' In 1712, 
the Commons, reduced by the encroachments of 
cultivation, were surveyed by Thomas Clowes, and 
then contained but 6213 acres. At the General 
Town Meeting, October 14, 1723, seven men "are 
chosen by major vote to divide the individual Land 
of Hempstead, and to lay to every man according 
to his just right and to doe the work according 
to Justice." Diligence in its execution was not 
enjoined. Nearly twenty years later, when called 
upon to report their work, at a Town Meeting 
where the four survivors of the Committee were 
present, they ask for more time. " But it appears to 
our way of thinking," the Town goes on to say, that 
" They have proposed contrary to Reason and the 
scheme that was projected by the Town by taking 
and selling the town-land where and for what they 

^ These rights of Common were long preserved and bequeathed, or 
sold as private property. As late as 1792, Harry Peters, son of Valen- 
tine Hewlett Peters, offers for sale, his farm near Hempstead Village, 
"a pleasant, salubrious and public situation, worthy the attention of 
the farmer, the trader, or the private gentleman, with the great 
privilege of Commonage in the plains and marshes, enabling the 
proprietor to keep what stock he pleases." 



134 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

Pleased, and Laying out to Some men where they 
Chose, and others could not get their rights unless 
they took their land in Leavings and poor land. 
And as the four men continue Laying out land and 
bringing the Town into more confusion which wee 
whose names are after written, doe protest against," 
— etc. 

Hempstead suffered less than almost any other 
town from Indian attacks, and yet was not altogether 
free from their assaults. Pennawitz had been deemed 
the firm friend of both the Dutch and the English, 
but scarcely were the Stamford Pilgrims established, 
when his tribe was suspected of a plot against them. 
Mr. Fordham hastily imprisoned seven Indians on a 
false and trivial charge. An expedition under John 
Underbill at once sailed for 'T Schout's Bay, and 
marched across country to Heemstede. Underbill 
put to death three of the prisoners and took the 
others to Fort Amsterdam where they were tortured 
with great barbarity. La Montagne had at the same 
time been ordered against the Canarsies with a force 
of one hundred men ; their chief village was 
destroyed and six-score Indians killed. Underbill 
meanwhile was sent to Connecticut and the annihil- 
ating battle of Strickland's Plain followed. The 
Indians on either side of the Sound sued for peace, 
thankfully accepting the hard conditions imposed. 

In 1651, the Reverend John Moore wrote to the 
Directors at Amsterdam, in behalf of the magistrates 
of Heemstede, a protest against Stuyvesant's alleged 
arming of the Indians. The letter is a piece of 
vivid description relating the "various insolences" 



GRIEVANCES IN HEEMSTEDE. 1 35 

of which the Indians have been guilty. '* They 
have driven out of the pasture our remaining and 
surviving cattle. It is a matter of small moment in 
their eyes to kill a good ox merely for the horns to 
carry powder in ; sometimes they kill a man, some- 
times a woman ; they plunder our houses, purloin 
our guns, pry into our affairs, endeavour to drown 
the people, strip children in the fields, and " — most 
lame and impotent conclusion, a ludicrous anti- 
climax — " they prowl abroad with masks or visors." 

The Hempstead Plains are full of natural depres- 
sions of unusually rich soil.* In one of these 
" Hollows," the settlers planned their village and 
laid out their garden plots. The grassy Plains were 
very alluring to those pastoral Englishmen, in whom 
the earth-hunger was strong. Many of them were 
from Yorkshire, a grazing country, and in a few 
years, herds of cattle were scattered over the Plains, 
or sent for pasturage to the many Necks along the 
Sound. Much of the early legislation of the Town 
refers to rights of Common, to the gates or the 
keeping up of fences, while the Cow-herd whose duties 
were the survival of an old Friesland custom, the 
Calf-keeper, and the Pinder (Pound-master) were 
among the most important ofificials. 

The Gate-Rights on Cow Neck permitted every 
man to pasture cattle proportionately to the number 
of " standing gates," or panels of fence which he 
built and kept in order. In 165 1, five hundred and 
twenty-one gates were owned by sixty-one men. A 

' " Hollows," which bore various distinctive names, as Cherry-tree 
Hollow, Walnut Hollow, Ground-nut Hollow. 



136 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

few years later, a fine of one guilder was imposed 
for every defective length, and penalties prescribed 
for carelessly letting down fences : " If any one 
shall open ye towne-gates, and shall neglect to put up 
ye barres and shut ye sd gates, . . . for such 
defect, five shillings, the halfe to be given to ye In- 
former." Again : " It is ordered by the Townsmen 
of Hempstead for this present yeare, 1659, that all 
the fences of ye frontiere lotts that runne into ye 
fields, shall be substantially and sufficiently fenced 
by the 25th of this present month of Appril, and if 
any p'son, or p'sons shall be found negligent in soe 
doeing, that they shall forfeit for his offence 5 shil- 
lings for the vse of ye towne." 

The engagement of the Cow-herd was a matter of 
solemn contract, as, see the 

'^ Act of Agreement made and concluded between 
the Toivnesmeti of Hempstead for this present year, 
anno 1658, of the one party, and William Jacocks 
and Ethvard Reynor of the other party : 

" Imprimis, William Jacocks and Edivard Reynor 
do hereby agree to take ye chardges of seeing all ye 
cowes belonging to ye East heard of ye towne of 
Hempstead, beginning ye nth day of May, next 
insuing ye date hereof, and to continew vntill ye 
saide Towne finde itt convenient to release and dis- 
chardge them, which shall bee about ye time that ye 
Indian harvest shall be wholly taken in howses. 

" Item, ye people shall be ready at ye sounding of 
ye home to Send out their Cowes and ye Cowe 
Keeper shall be ready by ye time ye Son is halfe 



CONTRACT WITH THE COW KEEPER. 1 37 

an hower above ye horrison to drive them oute. 
And . . . before sonn-setting to bring them in. 

"Item, ye one of ye both sureties above specified, 
shall be always ready to attende theire chardge and 
shall be carcfull to water ye cowes at seasonable 
times of ye day, and shall drive them one day of the 
week unto Kow Neck, and shall lett them have the 
range and feeding to ye North East end of ye ox 
pasture. . . . The Cow-Keeper's wages shall be 
in future i pound of butter for each cow in the 
hearde, at 6 pieces the pound, and the remain- 
der shall be in sufficient wampum, or otherwise in 
coin. 

" The Cow Keeper's last day of keeping the Kowes 
shall bee on Wednesday ye 23rd Oct. Stilo novo, 
being humiliacon Day. Also, a calve-keeper to make 
it his whole employment to keep ye calves to ye 
No. of 80 and to watter ye Calves twice in a day." 
Book A, p. 34. 

The cattle thus pasturing in Common were dis- 
tinguished by their owner's earmark, carefully regis- 
tered in the Town Book. 

" John fonostrond, his Earmark is a swallow-fork 
on the near ear and a half-penny mark under the 
same, and a hole in the same. 

" Samuel Hewlett his Earmark is a sHpe under the 
near ear, a flower-de-luce on the foreside of the ear 
and a half-penny under it. " Entered by me 

" Thos. Gildersleeve, 

"Town Clerk. 

" Dec. ye 14th, 1729." 



138 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

Dairy products were long a staple of Hempstead. 
On his campaign of 1755, Sir William Johnson sends 
from Whitehall to the representatives of Queens 
County in the Provincial Assembly, his thanks for 
sixty-nine cheeses, " highly acceptable and reviving," 
and for two hundred sheep sent as a gift to the 
army. He writes: "This generous humanity of 
Queens County is unanimously and loudly applauded 
by all here, . . . and may those amiable house- 
wives to whose skill we owe the refreshing cheeses, 
long continue to shine in their useful and endearing 
station." ' 

Sheep-raising was followed from the earliest set- 
tlement of the town, the sheep branded and pas- 
tured in common upon the Great Plains. This 
common pasturage was carefully guarded, as shown 
by the Act of June 17, 1726: " To prevent the set- 
ting on fire, or burning the old grass on Hempstead 
Plains, done by certain persons for the gratification 
of their own wanton tempers and humours." Old 
men still talk of the yearly " sheep-parting," which 
took place every fall in the centre of the Great 
Plains, when swift horsemen collected and drove up 
the scattered flocks, and their increase to be claimed 
by their respective owners. Wool of excellent 

' All Long Island shared this interest in the French and Indian 
wars, and gifts to the army were many. The N'fw York Gazette of 
September, 1755, says : " The people of Suffolk Co. sent 50 head of 
fat cattle to Gen. Johnson in Camp at Lake George." It adds: 
" The women of the county, ever good on such occasions, are knit- 
ting several large bags of stockings and mittens to be sent to the 
poorer soldiers in garrison at Fort William Henry and Fort Ed- 
ward." 



EXPORTATION OF GRAIN. 1 39 

quality was early in the market ; in every homestead, 
the spinning-wheel, the loom, and the dye-pot pro- 
duced those enduring domestic fabrics which have 
not yet lost their beauty. Lord Cornbury wrote to 
the Secretary Hodges in 1705 : " I, myself, have 
seen serge upon Long Island, that any man may 
wear." 

Care was also given to the raising of fine horses, a 
pursuit fostered by the successive English governors. 
Richard Nicoll, on his first visit to Hempstead, 
established on the Little Plains — for a time called 
Salisbury Plains, — near Hyde Park, the Newmarket 
Race-course, and gave a silver plate as the prize to 
be run for, every spring. 

But, that the attention of the planters of Hemp- 
stead was not confined to stock-raising, is shown, 
when it is observed that within five years they were 
exporting grain. Roger Williams writes to John 
Winthrop, Junior, June 13, 1649: "Mr. Throck- 
morton has lately brought some corne from Hem- 
sted and those parts but extraordinarie deare. I 
pay him 6 shillings for Indian and 8 for wheate." ' 
Two years later, the Reverend John Moore writes 
to Amsterdam asking for servants to be sent over, 
their passage to be paid in the " proceeds of their 
labours, corn, beef, pork, tobacco and staves." 

From the care with which its records were kept 

' In 1658, the Townsmen fix the " Prices of Corne : 

Wheat at 5 shillings ye bushell 

Gates " 2 " 8d. " " 

Indian Corn " 3 " " " " 

In 1679, " Long Island wheate sells for 3 shillings a skipple." 



140 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

in the English Towns, Long Island is rich in the 
materials for local history. In Hempstead there are 
five volumes, covering the period from 1657 to the 
division of the town in 1784. Of the first three 
books* only scattered leaves remained, until they 
were carefully collected, mended, and mounted by 
the late Mr. Henry Onderdonk, an antiquarian, 
whose fond devotion to his ancestral island should 
be gratefully remembered by all her children. There 
was also a still earlier volume, entirely destroyed, 
and alluded to as " The Mouse-Eaten Book," whose 
records as prior to 1657 would be now of priceless 
worth. 

Book A, the oldest extant annals of the Hemp- 
stead founders, written by Daniel Denton, Clericus," 
is prefaced by " An Alphabet to the most Motorial 
things in this Book relating to the Publick." Hemp- 
stead, like the other English Towns, was a pure de- 
mocracy, and every ordinance begins : " It is ordered 
by the Townesmen." The first entry in Book A is 
as follows : 

' Book A, 1657-62. 
" B, 1662-80. 
" C, 1680-95. 

'^ Daniel Denton, son of the Reverend Richard Denton, was 
author not only of his Description of New York, but of A Small 
Treatise of about jjs pp. Svo. stiled a Divine Soliloquy, or the 
Mirror of 

J. Created Purity. 

2. Contracted Deformity. 

J. Restored Beauty, and 

4. Celestial Glory. 

All of which are Piously, Solidly, Pathetically and Practically 
handled in good Language. 



THE TOWN BOOKS. I4I 

"March the 17th, 1657 Stylo novo. Choosen by 
the towne of Hempsteed for Townesmen for the 
above said yeare. 

Richard Brutnal Francis Wickes 

Rich. Valentyne Robard Marvine 

Adam Mott." 
It goes on : " Wee the Magistrates of Hempstead 
doe hereby engage ourselves to stand by and bare 
out with full power the above named Townesmen 
in all such actes and orders as shall conduce for the 
good and benefite of this towne for the preasante 
yeare, giveing out of land and resaiving in of inhab- 
itants onely excepted. Given under ovvr handes this 
i6th day of Apprell, 1657. S. N. 

" Ri. Gildersleeve 
" Jno. Seaman." 

The Town Books contain a minute description of 
all lands " given out," or changing owners. There 
are also many curious entries which unconsciously 
throw a vivid light upon the new country and its 
simple life, and are of the greatest sociological value 
to one who would reconstruct a picture of this prim- 
itive life. Among the " Publick debtes and chardges 
of the Towne" in February, 1668, Thomas Landon 
receives six pounds as a bounty for killing half a 
dozen wolves/ and Mrs. Washburne is paid two shil- 

' A marked difference was made in the bounty paid to a " Chris- 
tian," or to an Indian. A colonial statute of 1683 provides that : 
" Whatsoever Christian shall kill a grovi^n wolf upon Long Island, 
he shall be paid twenty shillings, and whatsoever Indian shall in like 
manner kill any wolfe or wolves, they shall be paid a match-coate of 
the value of twelve shillings for each, and for a whelpe half as 
much." 



142 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

lings " for making a Holland shirt for ye Sagamore." 
Here and there, a ray is shed upon domestic life, or 
family relations, which has its personal interest, as 
when a certain wife signs a deed " vollentaryly 
without threatening or fflatery," or a transfer of 
land is made " with the consent and good liking of 
my loving wife, Ruth." 

The town legislation looked carefully after the 
manners and morals of the people. In the earliest 
Town Book (A., p. 58) occurs the following : 

" These Orders made at a Generall Court held at 
Heemstede, Sept. ye 16, 1650, and consented to by 
a full Town Meeting, held Oct. ye 18, 1650. 

" Forasmuch as the contempt of Gods Word and 
Sabbath is the desolating Sinn of civill States and 
Plantations, and that the Publicke preaching of the 
word by those that are called there vnto is the chief 
and ordiniare meanes ordayned of God, for the con- 
verting, edifying and saving of ye Soules of ye Ellect 
through the presence and power of ye Holy Ghost 
thereunto promised. It is thereby ordered and 
decrede by the Authority of the Generall Court that 
all pesons inhabiting this Towne or ye limitts thereof, 
shall duly resorte and repare to the publique Meet- 
ings and Assemblies on ye Lordes dayes, and on 
publique Days of fasting and thanks and humiliacon 
appointed by publique Authority both on the fore- 
noons and afternoons. 

"And who has already, or shall without just and 
necessary causes approved by this particular Court 
soe offend ; hee, or they shall forfeit for the first 
offence, five guilders, for the second ten guilders, for 



SUMPTUARY LAWS. I43 

the third twenty guilders. And if any manner of 
person shall remaine refractorie, perverse and obsti- 
nate hee shall be lyable for the aggravation of the 
fine, or for corporal punishment or Banishment. By 
order of ye Magistrates. 

" Daniell Dentonius, 

" Clericus." 

The assembling of the people was at "ye beating 
of ye drum," for which a charge is regularly made 
against the town, and often paid in tobacco. 

The holding of office was then a privilege seriously 
regarded, as when the Clerk thus records his re-elec- 
tion: "27 Nov. 1658, John James is chosen upon 
this day for ye towne Clerk for ye Insuing yeare 
being his seconde yeare of service by the Permission 
of God Almighty." 

Here is the license for an Inn, entered May 13, 
1659: "John Smith, Rock,' is licensed to keep an 
ordinary and to sell meat and drink and lodging for 
strangers with their retinue, both for horse and man 
and to keep such good order that it may not be 
offensive to the laws of God and of this place" 
(Book A, p. 54). A high license law had already 
been passed by the General Town Meeting, Novem- 
ber 27, 1658: "It is ordered that any manner of 
person or persons inhabiting within the town of 
Hempstede that after the day of the date hereof, 
shall sell eyther wine, beere, or any manner of drams, 
or stronge licquors, that they shall make entry of 

' Rock, a name borne for distinction by the younger John Smith 
of Stamford. He was usually called " Rock John." The inn, at 
this period, was always kept by some leading man of the town. 



144 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

the same unto the Clerck, and shall pay for any 
kinde of drams or spannish wine, the som of 5 guild- 
ers the ancker : for the half satt of strong beere 12 
guilders, for the ancker of French wine 3 guilders, 
one half to be imployed for the provision of amoni- 
tion for the use of the town, and the other moytie 
and half part for the education of poor orphants, or 
other poore inhabitants children." 

Governor Dongan writes in 1683, that "^52 have 
been offered for the Excise of L. I., but I thought 
it unreasonable, it being the best peopled place in 
this governmt and wherein is great consumption of 
Runime."' 

In 1698, the Town granted liberty to John Robin- 
son to set up a grist and fulling mill at the Head- 
of-the-Harbour, on condition of grinding for its 
inhabitants one twelfth of all the grain ground. The 
mill passed to various owners, until finally it came 
into the possession of Hendrick Onderdonk, grand- 
father of the Bishops Onderdonk. In 1773, Mr. 
Onderdonk built a paper mill also, the second in 

' At the very beginning of the English administration, Governor 
Nicoll had given immunity from taxation, and a monopoly of vine 
culture to one Paule Richard, who had " Intent to plant vines on his 
Plantation called the Little ffiefe on Long Island." It was ordered 
that all wines made by him, "If sold in grosse should be ffree from 
any Kinde of Impositions and by retaile for 30 yeares, ffree from all 
Imports and excise. Further, that eveiy person who should here- 
after for 30 years to come, plant Vines in any place within the Gov- 
erment shall pay to the saide paul Richards, his heirs, executors and 
assigns, 5 shillings for every acre so planted." The outcome of this 
enterprise is not on record, but two years later, Richard, in debt to 
Cornells Steenwyck, for six hogsheads of wine, promises to pay 
' ' with the first wine he shall come to get out of his vineyard planted 
in these parts." 



COMMERCIAL POLICY. I45 

the Colony, and Hugh Gaine, the bold editor of the 
Nerv York Mercury, was his agent for the sale of the 
paper. 

Enlightened views in regard to commerce were 
early held by our Long Island forefathers. Novem- 
ber 2, 1609, Hempstead addressed to the Governor, 
a petition with ten specifications, among which the 
most noteworthy is the request that " All harbours, 
creeks and coves within this colony be at Hbertie for 
any shipping or vessels to come in and trade free." 
In reply the Governor said : " It is not thought 
equitable that any small creek or cove shall have 
greater privileges than ye Head City of ye Govern- 
ment where ye Customes are established." 

Hempstead jealously guarded her prerogatives, 
territorial, political, or spiritual. In 1661, "Leave 
is granted " Thomas Terry and Samuel Bearing, 
Planters, to settle at Martinecock within certain 
specified limits, but the Town Book goes on to say, 
" They are to bring in no Quakers nor such like 
Opinionists, nor are they to let their cattle come on 
to the Great plaines and spoile our corn." A cen- 
tury later, is another protest against intrusion. It 
is written in the Town Book F, p. 92 : " Whereas a 
great many strangers having no right nor title in 
this town have for many years past and still con- 
tinue to come into the Bays and Creeks within the 
Pattent, with sloops, boats and other vessels, carry- 
ing away very large quantities of Clams which prac- 
tice is a great detriment to the Inhabitants of this 
Town, especially the Poorer Sort who Receive great 
benefit from their part of the fishery, as well as 
using the same in support of their Families, as by 



146 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

getting them for sale, and it is highly reasonable 
that the Inhabitants of the town should have the 
benefit and privileges of the town . . . there- 
fore the Town appoints Overseers to prevent 
strangers coming, and if any should presume to dig, 
rake or gather clams, to prosecute them." 

An Act is passed for the " Laying out of a High- 
wai," April 2, 1717, and thenceforward there is 
much town legislation and litigation on the subject. 
In 1 761, " To the Commissioners and Assessors of 
the Highways and Roads of the Town of Hemp- 
stead, the Petition of the Freeholders showeth, 

" Whereas the commodity and advantage of the 
Inhabitants greatly depends upon having access to 
the Publick wattering-places at the East Meadow on 
Hempstead Plains, for all sorts of cattel and other 
Creatures, & whereas there is some probability of 
Encroachment being made by some persons for 
their private interest in stoping up and Imbar- 
rifying the water to the great damage of the Pub- 
lick," etc., etc. — the petitioners seek the protection 
of their interests. 

The Patent of the Director-General Kieft and the 
purchase from the Indians were deemed quite suf- 
ficient authority for the occupation of Hempstead, 
but in 1683, the townsmen were obliged to meet 
Governor Dongan's insistence upon a new patent. 
Mr, John Jackson, Mr. John Seaman,' and Mr. John 
Tredwell were chosen to go to New York, and 

* Captain Seaman, with his six sons, settled Jerusalem in 1665, on 
land bought from the Meroke Indians, and confirmed by special 
patent from Governor Nicoll. 



QUIT-RENTS. 1 47 

negotiate the affair. All business moved slowly in 
those days, and a year after, nothing had been done. 
Jackson and Tredwell, with Symon Searing, were 
then sent under instructions " to get the Patent as 
reasonable as they can for the good of themselves 
and the other inhabitants." Twice again, during 
the year, deputies were sent, with no result. Finally, 
the Town Meeting of April 3, 1685, re-appointed 
Jackson and Tredwell, with Jonathan Smith, Senior, 
to go to New York. The Patent was given two 
weeks later. A tax of two and a half pence per 
acre was then assessed on the freeholders to pay for 
the Patent and the attendant expenses. 

The quit-rents of the various English patents were 
a heavy burden to all Long Island. The payment 
was often evaded, always delayed, although the day 
of reckoning was sure to come. At the General Town 
Meeting of Hempstead, April 23, 1741, John Cornell 
and Jacob Smith were " appointed by the Town to 
goe down to New York and pay the Quitt Rent of 
our General Patent of Hempstead that is behind, 
and agree for ye charges that is already accrued by 
neglect of not being paid, and make report thereof 
to the town, and they to be repaid by the town 
again, and six per cent interest to be allowed them 
until they be paid again." 

In ijii, George Sheresby taught school on Cow 
Neck. There is no trace found of the earlier schools, 
which for nearly four-score years certainly must 
have existed in Hempstead. The P^lower Hill School 
was established early in the eighteenth century. In 
1748, Nicholas Berrington there "taught Youth to 



148 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

write the usual hand : Arithmetic in both kinds with 
Extraction of the Roots, as also Navigation & Mer- 
chants Accts after an Itah'an manner." Later, the 
Reverend Samuel Seabury, Rector of St. George's 
Church, opened a school in the Rectory, which pro- 
posed " to entertain young gentlemen in a genteel 
manner for ^^30 a year." 

The first church in Hempstead was the Indepen- 
dent Meeting-house, built in 1647, a few rods north- 
east of Burly Pond in Hempstead village. This 
building, twenty-four feet square, was used for all 
public assemblies, civic or religious, during nearly 
thirty years. But, at the Town Meeting, April i, 
1673, " Mr. Seaman and John Smith, blue, were 
chosen to agree with Joseph Carpenter to build a 
new meeting-house, 34 feet long, 22 feet wide and 
12 feet stud, with a leanto on each side, the new 
house to be set at the west end of the old one." It 
was roofed with cedar shingles, clap-boarded with 
oak, and ceiled within with pine. Built, as had been 
the first house, by civic authority out of public 
funds, it was used for all meetings, secular or reli- 
gious. Across the little brook on a gentle slope, stood 
the parsonage, and to its glebe belonged a hundred 
acres of salt meadow, known as " the Parsonage at 
the South Bay," the property of the Town, of whom 
the minister was the tenant. The parsonage was 
afterward taken possession of by the Episcopal 
Church, and the present picturesque old rectory 
stands on the site of the " comfortable house " 
built for the Reverend Jeremiah Hobart (Hubbard) 
in 1682. 



THE FIRST MEETING HOUSE. 1 49 

It is uncertain if there were any " settled " min- 
ister between the departure of Mr, Denton in 1659 
and the coming of Mr. Hobart, although the more 
or less brief ministry of Mr. Jonas Fordham falls 
within this period. There is preserved a curious 
correspondence in reference to the stay of Mr. 
Denton, this Moses of the Connecticut Exodus. It 
was between the " Right worshipfull peeter Stiua- 
sent," and Richard Gildersleeve, " in the name and 
behaulf of the town of Hemsteed, 25 of July, 
1659." Stuyvesant's final words are that, " Wee sal 
use al endevors we ken, iff hee ken not bee per- 
suaded, jou must looke for another Abel and Godly 
man wearunto wee on our scyde sal contribute waht 
ys in our power." 

Mr. Hobart remained as pastor until 1696, when 
he removed to Haddam, Connecticut.' From that 
time, for more than a hundred years, there was no 
" settled " minister until the first Presbyterian pastor 
was installed in 1818.'' The Independents, however, 
held their ground, and, in 1762, had built a new 
house, the third, on part of the old burying ground 
and on nearly the site of the present Presbyterian 
Church. During the Revolution it was used as bar- 
racks for the division of the British army quartered 

' Mr. Hobart died in 171 7, aged eighty-seven. He was the grand- 
father of David Brainard, so zealous in efforts for Indian education. 

* The various incumbents during the Colonial period were : 

Richard Denton 1644-59 Benj. Woolsey 1736-56 

Jonas P'ordham 1659-81 Abraham Kettletas 1760-65 

Jeremiah Hobart 1682-96 Hotchkiss I770 

Joseph Lamb 1717-25 Joshua Hart 1772-6 

1787-93 



I50 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

in Hempstead, and suffered much from reckless 
abuse. It was burned in 1803. About tlie church 
is the old villat^e graveyard in which were the ear- 
liest burials of the town. Unmarked now/ a billowy- 
field of sunken, nameless graves, overrun by a tangled 
mat of blackberry and cinquefoil — what unwritten 
history is there ! 

In 1674, a petition was addressed to Governor 
Andros, that " His Honour being the father of this 
Comon welth . . . would be pleased to instal 
such athority amongst us as may be means under 
god for upholding and maintaining of the menestry 
and worship of god amongst us." But for more 
than twenty years, no services of the Church of 
England were yet held. In 1693, there was gradu- 
ated at Harvard, William Vesey, a youth trained by 
Increase Mather after the straitest sect of Puritanism. 
He preached in Hempstead and in New York as an 
Independent minister, but was persuaded by Colonel 
Heathcote to go to England for orders. He was 
received into the priesthood by the Lord Bishop of 
London, August 2, 1697. Returning to America, 
he became the first rector of Trinity, and his ability 
gave to the Church of England its precedence in 
the province of New York. 

By the Ministry Act of 1693, Queens County was 
divided into the Precincts, or Parishes, of Hemp- 
stead and Jamaica. Jamaica included Flushing, and 
Hempstead, Oyster Bay ; each parish supporting a 
missionary by the yearly payment of ;^6o. The first 

' The stones were torn up for hearth-stones, or used in construction 
of the soldiers' rude ovens. 



THE REVEREND GEORGE KEITH. 151 

Episcopal services were held in Hempstead, in 1698, 
by the Reverend George Keith, who was, in earlier 
life, a Quaker. Four years later, he writes: "I 
preached at Hampstead on Long Island where there 
was such a multitude of people that the Church 
could not hold them, and many stood without at 
doors and windows to hear : who were well-affected 
and greatly desired that a Church of England Mini- 
ster should be settled amongst them, which has been 
done for the Reverend John Thomas is now their 
minister." 

November 21, 1703, he writes in his Journal: 
" I preached at Hampstead Church and Lodged the 
Night at Isaac Smith's House 4 Miles Distant from 
the Church & there I baptised a young woman of 
his Family and a Boy and Girl of his relatives, and a 
neighbour's children, all boys. This Isaac Smith had 
been formerly a quaker and was scarce then fully 
come off, but came and heard me Preach, and was 
well-affected and did kindly entertain me." 

The Reverend John Thomas was the Missioner of 
the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in For- 
eign Parts, appointed in 1702. In 1704, his induc- 
tion to the Church of Hempstead was thus ordered : 

" Edward, the most noble Viscount Cornbury, 
Captain general, Governor of New York in America, 
Vice-Admiral of the same, &c., &c. To ALL and 
singular, the Rectors, Vicars, Chaplains, Curates, 
Clergymen and ministers, whatsoever throughout 
the Province aforesaid, wherever established, and 
also to the present Church-Wardens of the parochial 
Church of Hempstead, Greeting: 



152 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

" Whereas I commit to you, jointly and severally, 
our beloved in Christ, John Thomas, Clerg)'man 
presented to the Rectory, or parochial Church of 
Hempstead, now vacant, to be instituted as rector 
of the said Rectory, or parochial church, in and of 
the same, and firmly enjoying, I command that ye 
collate and induct, or cause to be inducted, the same 
John Thomas, Clergyman, into the real, actual and 
corporal possession of the rectorate, or parochial 
Church of Hempstead, of the glebes and all its 
rights and appurtenances, and that ye defend him 
so inducted, and what ye shall have done in the 
premises, ye will certify mc, or some other duly 
competent judge in their behalf, or he will certify 
whoever of you being present, may have executed 
this mandate. 

" Given under the perogative seal of the said 
Province, the 26th day of December, Anno Domini, 
1704. " CORNBURY. 

" Geo. Clarke, Secy." 

Following this ponderous charge, is the " Return " 
of the wardens : 

"We whose names are subscribed by virtue of the 
above instrument, have inducted the Reverend Mr. 
Thomas into the real, actual and corporal possession 
of the Rectorship, or Church of Hempstead, this 
27th day of December, Anno Domini, 1704. 

*' Thos. Jones, 
" Thos. Gildersleeve, 
" William Vesey, 
" William Urquhart, 

'•* ChurcJi Wardens'' 



THE RECTORATE OF HEMPSTEAD. 1 53 

Mr. Thomas's letters to the " S. P. G. F. P." throw 
many interesting side-lights upon the time. In 
1705, he writes: "The people of Hempstead are 
better disposed to peace and civility than they at 
Jamaica." Again, he says: " The gall of bitterness 
of this Independent Kidney is inconceivable, not 
unlike that of Demetrius and his associates at the 
conceived downfall of the great Diana of the 
Ephesians." Soon after, he says : " I have neither 
pulpit nor any one thing necessary for the adminis- 
tration of the Eucharist, and only the beat of a drum 
to call the people together. His Excellency, Lord 
Cornbury, is a true nursing father to our infancy 
here. His countenance and protection is never 
wanting to us, being by inclination a true son of the 
Church, which moves him zealously to support 
that wholly. If it had not been for the support of 
Lord Cornbury and his government, it would have 
been impossible to have settled a Church on the 
island." 

Mr. Thomas describes the beautiful Hempstead 
region as an " even delightsome plain, 16 miles long, 
richly furnished with beef, mutton and fowls of all 
sort, the air sharp and severe and not subject to 
those fulsome fogs so natural to the English climate. 
The place is sweet and pleasant. Brother Urquhart 
(of Jamaica) and I are the first that brake the ice 
amongst this sturdy obstinate people, who endeavour 
as in them lies to crush us in embryo." In 1709, 
Mr. Thomas writes that although Hempstead had 
been " settled above sixty years before my coming 
and the people had some sort of dissenting minis- 



154 EAKLY LOXG ISLAND. 

ters, )'ot for above fifty-five years tlie sacrament had 
never been administered here. I have brought 
thirty-three to the full communion of the Church." 
A year later, ho notes the " happy continuance of 
mutual accord " between himself and his parishioners. 

The records of the Church begin during the in- 
cumbency of the Reverend Robert Jenney, who was 
in Hempstead from 1725 to 1742. He preached in 
the Independent Meeting-house until the parish 
church of Saint George was built on the site still 
occupied. Mr. Jennc)', writing of the need for a 
church, says : " M)' congregation has grown too big 
for the house I officiate in, which is also very much 
gone to deca)', and too old and crazy to be repaired 
and enlarged to any purpose." On April 8, 1734, 
the freeholders of the town met and laid out the 
church plot. Anthony Yelverton was appointed 
" Head housewright." The work of building went 
on through the year in the slow fashion of the age, 
but the church was finished in time to be consecrated 
on Saint George's Day, 1735. Then, when Hemp- 
stead Plains were the fairest, in their first flush of 
spring luxuriance, when the earth-odour came from 
the newly ploughed fields, when cherry trees were 
blooming along the fence-rows and dogwood whiten- 
ing the forest recesses, a stately procession from 
New York, led by the Governor's coach-and six, 
drove out in the sunshine and the breeze, to the 
solemn ceremonies and to the festivities of the hos- 
pitable town-folk. 

The Xeii.' York Gazette gives the story in detail. 
Chief-Justice De Lancey, the Reverend Mr. Vesey, 



SAINT GEORGE'S CHURCH. I 55 

the Governor and his party were met hy the towns- 
people, six miles west of Jamaica. They dined at 
Jamaica and were escorted thence to Hempstead. 
The next day, in presence of a " great concourse 
and a regiment of militia drawn up on either side," 
Mr. Jenney preached from the first verses of the 
eighty-fourth Psalm : " How amiable are thy taber- 
nacles, O Lord." After the service, " his Excellency 
reviewed the military and was entertained in a splen- 
did manner by Colonel Tredwell, and in the evening 
by Colonel Cornwell of Rockaway. The Governor 
presented to the church the King's Arms, painted 
and gilded.' The Secretary, Mr. Clarke, gave a set 
of crimson damask furniture ; John Marsh, Esq.,' a 
silver basin for baptisms," while Mr. Vesey and others 
made up a sum of fifty pounds. The church was 
already the owner of eucharistic vessels given by 
Queen Anne, a chalice inscribed Ann^e Regin^, 
and a small paten that might be used as its cover. 
A sketch of the church with its shingled sides and 
rounded windows, the only existing representation 
known, was found a few years ago on the fly-leaf 
of an old school book of Walter Nicoll's. The 
building was fifty feet in length and thirty-six in 
breadth, with a tower fourteen feet square, sur- 
mounted by a steeple wbich rose one hundred 
feet. At the entrance was a tablet which bore the 
words : 

' Removed by Mr. Cutting in 1776. 

'^ Mr. Marsh was an invalid from the West Indies vi'ho spent his 
summers in Hempstead. At his death, a few years later, he be- 
queathed £,\QO for the purchase of a bell. 



156 



EARLY LONG ISLAND. 



" Keep thy foot when thou goest to the House of 
God.— Eccl. V. I." 

There were eighteen pews within, and by the ac- 
tion of the Vestry, a deed of " Pew No. I." was 
given to the Honourable George Clarke, the Lieu- 
tenant-Governor of New York, then living at Hyde 
Park. 

Very soon, June 27, 1735, the " Petition ' of the 
Inhabitants of the Parish for the Corporation of St. 
George's Church," was presented to the Governor. 
The charter then given is still in the possession of 
the church. 

In October, 1742, Mr. Jenney went to Phila- 
delphia, and December loth was inducted the Rev- 
erend Samuel Seabury, of the Devonshire house of 
Sedborough, and of the best Pilgrim and Huguenot 



^ Signed by the 

Rev'd Robert 
Jas. Albertus 
Geo. Balden 
Gerhardns Clowes 

Clerk of the Vestry 
\Vm Cornell Sen. & Jun. 
John Cornell Jun. 
John Cornell 
Richard Cornell Jr. 
William Cornell 
Thos. Cornell 
Thos. Gildersleeve 
Geo. Gildersleeve 
Daniel Hewlett 
Jas. Hugins 
Joseph Langdon 
Wm Langdon 



Jenney, Rector. 

Thos. L,ee 

Robert Marvin 

Ja. Mott 

Chas. Peters M.D, 

Ja. Pine Sr. 

J. Roe 

Micah Smith 

Peter Smith 

Peter Smith Jr. 

Jacob Smith 

Silas Smith 

Ro. Sutton 

Rich. Thorne Esq. 

Joseph Thorne Esq. 

Thos. Williams 



THE EARLY RECTORS. 157 

lineage, a man of rare graces of mind and heart.' 
His successor was Leonard Cutting, of Pembroke 
College, Oxford. A polished man, a fine classical 
scholar, he had been, after a brief curacy in New- 
Brunswick, for several years the Professor of Classics 
at King's College. He was in Hempstead nearly 
twenty years, through all the troublous days of that 
civil war which so desolated Long Island. 

The New York Packet of November lo, 1785, 
has the following notice : 

" On Thursday last, the 3rd, Mr John Lowe, a 
gentleman from Virginia, received holy orders from 
the hands of the Right Reverend Samuel Sea- 
BURY," Bishop of the Episcopal Protestant Church 
in Connecticut, in Saint George's Church at Hamp- 

' His life is briefly told on the stone in Saint George's Churchyard : 

" Here lieth buried 

The Body of 

The Reverend Samuel Seabury A. M. 

Rector of the Parish of Hempstead 

Who 

With the greatest Diligence 

And 
Most indefatigable Labour 
For 13 years at New London 
And 21 years in this Parish 
Having discharged every duty 
Of his sacred function 
Died the 15th of June, an Dom 1764, Aet. 58 
In gratitude to the memory of 
The best of Husbands 
His disconsolate widow Elizabeth Seabury 
Hath placed this stone." 
' Son of the Rector of Saint George's, and the first American Bishop. 
Going to England to receive the episcopate. Bishop Lowth of Lon- 
don refused to consecrate a man returning to a diocese .in the United 



158 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

stead on Long Island. As this was the first instance 
of an ordinance of tlie Church which has ever taken 
place in this state, the solemnity of the occasion was 
almost beyond description — the excellent sermon 
delivered by the Bishop, the praj-ers and tears of 
himself, his Presbyters and the numerous assembly 
for the success of this gentleman in his ministry, 
will long be had in remembrance by every spec- 
tator." 

When Philip Cox, the first circuit-rider on Long 
Island, began his work in 1784, he found two Metho- 
dist Societies, one in Newtown at Middclburgh 
Village, and one in Comae, with an aggregate of 
twenty-four members. A Society was formed at 
Jamaica, and near Hempstead Harbour, " Hannah 
Searing, an aged and respectable widow-lady, opened 
her house for preaching, and ver}- man)' attended 
until an alarm was sounded that the false prophet 
foretold in Scripture had come." But this seed 
sown by the wayside did not perish. A society was 
formed and a meeting-iiouse built. Bishop As- 
bury, in his Journal, under date of May 22, 1787, 
says: " rode 20 miles on Long Island to Hempstead 

States. There were endless delays, and Mr. Seabury remained a 
year in London, until money and patience were nearly exhausted. 
He then went to Scotland, where the Episcopalians were ardent Jaco- 
bites, still usin;::: tlie litursiijy of Edward VI. 's first Prayer-book and in 
no sympathy with the lower Church of England. Seabury was wel- 
comed by these men living alike " in the midst of a hostile Presby- 
terian community," or with nonjuring Churchmen. Bishop John 
Skinner had a ]-irivatc chapel in his house at Aberdeen in which Sea- 
bury was consecrated November 14, 17S4, by Bisliop Skinner, Robert 
Kilgour, and Arthur Petrie. With his return, there was first an 
organised Episcopal Church in America. 



SOCIAL CONDITIONS IN HEMPSTEAD. I 59 

Harbour, and preached with some Hberty in the 
evening, at Searingtown." That house, the oldest 
Methodist Church on Long Island, a neat belfried 
building, with cedar-shingled sides, still stands in 
the beautiful champaign where the Plains break 
into the undulating ground of the North Side. The 
old name of Searingtown clings to the region, al- 
though on its fertile farms there is not now living 
one of the original owners. 

Hempstead bitterly opposed the coming of the 
Quakers, but, after a few years, a Friends' Meeting 
was established at Westbury. The first mention 
thereof is made, — " 1671, 3 month 23rd day. It is 
adjudged there shall be a meeting at the Woodedge, 
the 25th of 4 month, and so, every first day." 

The Hempstead planters brought from England 
that profound regard for land which is the basis of 
a true aristocracy. There were established the first 
homesteads of many of the most honoured families 
of the State, and their descendants are spread over 
the length and breadth of the continent. Life 
moved quietly on in the first century of colonisa- 
tion. The hardships of pioneer life gave place to 
the amenities of a refined and intelligent society, 
not unfamiliar with the court-life of New York, and 
not seldom polished by education "at home." 
Letters * and journals of the eighteenth century 

' A little girl of eleven writes in this stately style to her grand- 
father : 

" Ever Honoured Grandfather : 
" Sir, 

" My long absence from you and my dear Grandmother has been 
not a little tedious to me. But what renders me a Vast Deal of 



l60 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

picture a well-established order of life, and the social 
conventionalities of the Old World. 

The Town Records are continuous until 1784. 
Throughout the Revolution, in which struggle 
Hempstead was intensely and conscientiously loyal, 
the Tovvn Meetings were regularly held ; protests 
against rebellion, pledges of allegiance, transfers of 
land, and the business of the Township are all re- 
corded in the clear script of the nearly forty years 
Clerk of the Town, Valentine Hewlett Peters. 

Then a new election was held,' and soon the divi- 
sion was made of the historic old town whose mem- 
ory is so dear to her descendants. At the Town 
Meeting, the first Tuesday of April, 1784, "As a Bill 
was before the Legislature dividing the township 
into North Hempstead and South Hempstead," 
which it is Likely will soon be passed into a Law, 

pleasure is Being intensely happy with a Dear and Tender Mother-in- 
law and frequent oppertunilies of hearing of your Health and Wel- 
fair which I pray God may long ("ontiinie. What I have more to 
add is to acquaint you that I have already made a Considerable pro- 
gress in Learning. I have already gone through some Rules of 
Arithmetick, and in a little time shall be able of giving you Better 
acct of my Learning, and in mean time I am in Duty Bound to sub- 
scribe myself 

" Your most obedient and Duty full granddaughter 

"Pegga Tredwell. 
" To Major Epenetus Piatt 

at Huntting town." 

' At a Town Meeting held at Hempstead the 22d of December, 
1783, being the first that was held by authority of the State of New 
York. John Siienck, T. C. 

-All below the Jericho Turnpike was South Hempstead. That 
name was used until 1796, when that portion of the old town was 
again called Hempstead. 



DIVISION OF THE TOWN. 



i6i 



it is farther voted that this meeting be adjourned 
until next Tuesday April i8th." The next entry- 
is of a "Town Meeting held at Searing Town, at 
the house of Sam'l Searing, for choosing officers for 
North Hempstead, April 13, 1784." 

A year later, March 31, 1785, the Legislature 
voted that a new Court House should be built at 
the geographical centre of Queens County. This 
point was on the Great Plains, "within one mile of 
the Windmill Pond," near the present village of 
Mineola. There the old building, long perverted 
from judicial uses, still stands. It seems to belong 
to a by-gone age, but before its corner-stone was 
laid the history of the original town of Hempstead 
had closed. 




•=>^ 



IX. 



OTHER QUEENS COUNTY TOWNS: NEWTOWN, 
FLUSHING, OYSTER BAY, JAMAICA. 



IN August, 163S, Director-General Kieft bought 
of the Indians, for the West India Company, a 
tract of land two miles broad, extending along 
the East River four miles beyond the Waale-Boght, 
and inland to the Mespaetches Swamp. The first 
settler thereon was the Dutch yeoman, Hans 'T 
Boore, who owned two hundred morgens at 'T 
Kreupel Bosch, near the head of the Mespat Kills.' 
A little later," an Englishman, Richard Brutnell, 
came to the mouth of the creek ; Tymen Jorisen, 
shipwright of the West Indian Company, had set- 
tled on the east side of the Canapauka, and next 
northward were the lands of Burger Joris, a Silesian 
smith and trader, who had first settled at Rensselaer- 
wyck. The Canapauka, or Dutch Kills, sluggishly 
windinsf throusfh the salt meadows of bronzed 

o o 

' Now Maspeth ; from the Indian Metsepe ; in Dutch, the Maes- 
paetches Killetje. The stream was also called the English Kills, 
and, later, Newtown Creek. 

• The date of the grant was July 3, 1643, although the men were 
there some time earlier. 

162 



THE IMPULSE OF ENGLISH SETTLEMENT. 1 63 

grasses, was soon known as Burger Kills, from the tide- 
water mills built thereon by the enterprising Joris. 

The first impulse toward English settlement came 
from the ecclesiastical disputes so rife in New Eng- 
land. In 1640, some Englishmen, settlers of Lynn 
and of Ipswich, harassed by the same insatiate spirit 
which had banished Roger Williams and Anne 
Hutchinson, came to Nieuw Amsterdam to "solicit 
leave to settle among the Dutch," and to negotiate 
for a grant of land upon Long Island. On condi- 
tion of taking the oath of allegiance to the States- 
General and to the V/est India Company, Kieft 
promised a patent giving religious freedom, the 
right of appointing magistrates under approval of 
the Director-General, the occupancy of the land 
rent free for ten years, with the commercial privi- 
leges of Nieuw Nederlandt. This patent they were 
eager to accept, but the General Court of Massachu- 
setts, displeased at the prospect of their "strength- 
ening the Dutch, our doubtful neighbours," and 
receiving from a rival power the lands granted to 
Lord Sterling, persuaded them to give up the plan. 

Two years later, Long Island was again sought as 

a haven of refuge. The Reverend Francis Doughty' 

was a preacher in Cohasset, then called Hingham, 

where a " controversie arose in the Church." Forced 

to leave his parish, he also, applied to the more lib- 

' P'rancis Doughty, some time vicar of Sodbury, was there silenced 
for non-conformity. 1 1 is son-in-law, Adrian van dcr Donck, wrote 
of him that Mr. Doughty came to New England to escape persecu- 
tion, and there found that he " had got out of the frying-pan into the 
fire." His chief heresy was the assertion that Abraham's children 
should have received the rite of baptism. 



164 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

eral Hollanders for a grant of land. Kieft gave him, 
March 28, 1642, an absolute ground-brief of thirteen 
thousand three hundred and thirty-two acres on the 
Mespat, a grant in common, on which to found a 
town. A few men, among them Richard and John 
Smith of Taunton,' came with Mr. Doughty, and 
the little village of Mespat was begun. 

Those who had thus adventured had fallen upon 
evil days. The reflex influence of the disgraceful 
Pavonia massacre had extended to Long Island. 
The day after that merciless onslaught, a petition 
had been presented to the Director-General asking 
permission to attack the Marekkavvieck Indians 
at the western point of the Island. Kieft, with 
unusual forbearance, refused, saying the Long 
Island Indians had always been the friends of 
the Dutch ; any attack would bring on a general 
and destructive war ; the tribe was " hard to con- 
quer," but, should the Indians show any hostility, 
all should defend themselves as best they could. 
This elastic license was well understood. The Indi- 
ans were everywhere alert, suspicious, and eager for 
vengeance. When their cornfields at Marekkawieck 
on the Waale-Boght were plundered by the people 
of Nieuw Amersfoordt and two men killed, this out- 
rage was the spark to the powder. The Indians fell 
upon the surrounding country. Mespat was utterly 
destroyed, fields laid waste, houses and cattle burned, 

•Roger Williams writes of him: "Mr. Richard Smith who for 
his conscience to God left faire possessions in Gloucestersliire and 
adventured with his Relations and Estates in New England and was 
a most acceptable Inhabitant and prime-leading man in Taunton in 
Plymouth Colony. For his Conscience's sake, many difficulties 
arising, he left Plymouth," etc. 



THE ME SPAT MASSACRE. 1 65 

one at least of its chief men, John Smith, killed, 
while its fugitive inhabitants sought shelter in 
Nieuw Amsterdam. 

Soon after, the conference already mentioned was 
held in the woods near Rockaway, where sixteen 
sachems assembled to meet the Dutch envoys. At 
daybreak, De Vries and his companions arrived. 
Addresses of simple pathos were made, emphasised 
by laying down the twigs which counted the various 
wrongs the Indians had endured. An exchange of 
gifts was made, and the chiefs then went with De 
Vries to Nieuw Amsterdam. A nominal peace was 
made, but no confidence in one another was restored. 
A desultory warfare continued for two years, until 
finally, August 30, 1645, both Dutch and English, 
tired of exercising constant vigilance, made a more 
decisive peace with the Indians at a council held on 
the green in front of Fort Amsterdam. The treaty 
was negotiated and confirmed by ambassadors from 
the Mohawks, who claimed sovereignty over the 
Algonquin tribes of Long Island. 

When the Indians were quieted, a few of the 
planters returned to the ashes of their homes and 
rebuilt their rude cabins. Mr. Doughty held him- 
self as the Patroon of a Manor and demanded from 
every settler payment for the land taken up, and a 
yearly quit-rent. Suit was brought against him by 
Richard and William Smith representing the peo- 
ple, and was decided in their favour in 1647.' He 

' Van Tienhoven, replying to this " Remonstrance of Mespat," 
says : " Mr. Smith was one of the leaders of these people, for the 
said minister had scarcely any means of himself to build a hut, let 
alone to plant a colonie at his own expense." 

Mr. Doughty was in many ways obnoxious to the people. There 



l66 EARLY LONG LSLAND. 

then went to I'^lushiui;, and finally ciulcd bis career 
in Virginia, while the Reverend John Moore suc- 
ceeded him as preacher in Newtown. 

Mespat never rallied from the calamity of 1643. 
In October of that year, the Eiijht Men were con- 
voked by Kieft, to consider the state of the Colony. 
They addressed to the Assembly of the XIX., and to 
the States-General, a piteous petition for aid against 
" the cruel heathen," and added : " The English who 
have settled amongst us have not escaped. They too, 
except in one place, are all murdered and burnt." 

The village languished, and six years later the in- 
dwellers were still very few. The centre of growth 
was to be farther down the stream. In 1652, an- 
other party ' came from New England to plant a 
colony, and were joined by Robert Coe and Mr. 
Richard Gildersleevc of Heemstede. They estab- 
lished themselves just cast of Mespat, in distinction 
from which the settlement was called the New 
Town, although it was officially named Middel- 
burgh, in fond remembrance of the capital of Zea- 
land where many of the English Separatists had 
found a welcome." 

They were given the civil and religious rights of 
Doughty's Patent, electing their own Townsmen. 
In their hands were all the affairs of the town, save 

is the record that William Gcrretse "sings libellous songs against 
the Reverend Francis Doughty," for which he is sentenced to be tied 
to the Maypole. 

' Tlieir leader was Mr. Henry Fealce, an early settler of Lynn, 
whence he removed in 1637, to found Sandwich. 

^ Thither, in 15S1, went Robert Browne and a part of his congre- 
gation when fleeing Ivom the wrath of the Ecclesiastical Commission. 



THE NEW TOWN. 



167 



the admission of new inhabitants and the allotment 
of land. These questions, as of prime importance, 
were brought before the " General Court," a primary 
Assembly, or Folk-mote, true survival of the greater 
Gemotes of the primeval German forests. Failing, 
however, to receive from Stuyvesant a confirmation 
of their patent, they bought the land of the sachems 
Rowerowestco and Pomwaukom, April 19, 1656. 
Every purchaser paid one shilling an acre, and the 
list of this " Indian Rate" ' preserves the names of 



' Robert Coe 
Richard Gildersleeve 
John Moore 
John Reeder 
Thomas Reede 
Widow Stevens 
Samuel Wheeler 
Ralph Hunt 
John Layton 
James Ilerod 
Thomas Hazard 
John Lawrenson 
John Burroughes 
Edward Jcssop 
John Gray 
Hcndrick Jansen 
John Micks 
Joseph Fowler 
Richard Betts 
Robert Puddington 
William Ilerrick 
Thomas Wandell 
Samuel Toe 
Thomas Reede 
Richard Walker 



James May 
John Coe 
Thomas Robinson 
Thomas Stevenson 
Nicholas Carter 
William Palmer 
John Furman 
William Laurence 
Henry Feake 
William Wood 
James Stewart 
Thomas Paine 
Thomas Laurence 
James Smith 
Peter Meacock 
Edmund Strickland 
James Bradish 

Colesay 

Richard Bullock 
James Laurenson 

Brumne 

Aaron 

Brian Newton 
Smith's Island 
Thomas Reedy 
John Hobby. 



m- 16. 4. 



1 68 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

the first freeholders of Newtown. Scarcely were they 
established, when false rumours of a combination of 
the Dutch and Indians so alarmed the few at Mes- 
pat, that they retreated to Stamford. 

There was also planned, but with indifferent suc- 
cess, another villat:[e nearer the water, to be called 
Arnheim, from the birthplace of the beloved Fiscal- 
Schout, Nicasius de Sille. It was, however, soon 
abandoned, being- thought to interfere with the 
growth of Bushwick. Within the Patent was also, 
'T Heulicken Eylandt,' or Burger Jorissen Eylandt, 
nearly opposite to T' Armen Bouwerie. This bene- 
volent foundation — The Poor's Bouwerie, and not, 
as mistranslation implied, a poor farm — was owned 
by the Dutch Church in Nieuw Amsterdam and 
later given to the town. 

In 1652, the Dominc Bogardus, second husband 
of Annetje Jans, planted a tract of land at the mouth 
of the Mespat Kills, which was long called for him, 
'T Domine's Hoeck. In 1697, it was bought from 
the heirs of Annetje Jans by Captain Peter Praa,' 
and given to his daughter Annetje, wife of William 
Bennct. Thus the present site of Long Island City 
gained the name of Bennet's Point, until, by subse- 
quent change of owners, it became the Hunter's 
Point of more recent times. 

* Meaning " Married Island," being received hy Deacon Jeuraien 
Fradel from liis wife Tryntjc, widow of Ilendrick llarmensen. who 
in 1638 settled tlicreon. 

'' A Huijucnot, native of l.evdon, who came to Middelburgh in 
1659. In his will. Captain Praa left to a favourite slave a bit of 
high ground encircled by a branch of the Mespat. It was long 
known as "Jack's Island," and tliere the old negro reigned as supreme 
as in his native Guinea. 



THE DECLARATION OF HASTINGS. 1 69 

When Connecticut received her charter in the fall 
of 1672, embracing the " Islands adjacent " — word 
was sent to the English villages on Long Island that 
they were annexed to " the other side of the Sound." 
The news was welcomed by Middelburgh, which ap- 
pointed new Townsmen and was prepared for com- 
plete revolt against Nieuw Nederlandt. The next 
year Connecticut assumed the authority she had 
claimed. Captain John Coe of Middelburgh and 
Anthony Waters of Jamaica went through the Eng- 
lish Towns proclaiming King Charles. They dis- 
placed the old magistrates and appointed new officers 
who took the oath of allegiance to the King. Mid- 
delburgh then threw off its Dutch name and called 
itself Hastings. 

February 4, 1664, the people signed a compact 
setting forth, in the following form, their fealty to 
England. The air was thick with the spirit of revolt 
against Holland. Affairs were ripening for the 
coming of Nicoll. 

" TO ALL CHRISTIAN PEOPLE 

in any parte of the world. Know that we the 
inhabitants of Hastings otherwise called Middel- 
burgh on Long Island in the South parte of New 
England, doe declare that we are by our birthright 
privileges subjects of his Majesty, King Charles the 
2d. of England, Scotland, France and Ireland King; 
and within the discoverys of his Royal predecessours 
are providentially seated, and by right of the natives 
have to the soil an absolute right of free socage in 
us and to our hayres and assigns forever, which 



170 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

right, interest and propryty with his Majesty's 
Royalty of Government wee promise to maintain 
agaynst any usurpers whatsoever, and will further 
and more i:>articularly doe anything whereby and 
wherewith our dread Sovereign ami his Successours 
may be owned as absolute Emperor in po)-nt of 
Civill judicature as by establishing an authority 
elected by the major parte of the freehouklcrs of this 
towne of Hastings aforesaid, yearly. 

" This very Island being bounded within the let- 
ters patante granted b}'' Kinge James of glorious 
memory this iSlh }'ear of his reigne ' to George 
Duke of Buckingham, James Duke of Lennox which 
pattante was bounded 40 and 48 degrees north latti- 
tude within the said lattitude, we say our just 
propryetys of soyle being invaded and his majesty's 
rights usurped by the Hollanders to }'e great scan- 
dall of government and discouragement of his Ma- 
jesty's hopeful plantation, which we all will farther 
defend as Englishmen, just propryetours and Loyall 
subjects with our lives and fortunes, in witness 
whereof we have set to our hands this 4th day of 
February, 1663 O. S." 

Their valour was not to be tested ; the desired 
change came quickly, ignominiously to the victors, 
dishonourably to all but the faithful Stuyvesant. In 
a few months Hastings was indisputabl)' part of an 
English province, free to meditate on King James 
of glorious memory and his gracious grandson. 

' Granted in 1620 to Sir Fordinando Gorges and otlieis, under 
name of " The Council of Plymouth in County of Devon for Plant- 
int^ and Governing New England in America." 



" LED AWAY BY HERE TICS." 1 7 1 

March 16, 1666, a Patent for the town was given by 
the new Government,' and twenty years later it was 
re-issued by Dongan, three years after the town, in 
the organisation of counties, had been included in 
Queens. 

The first church in Newtown was an Independent 
meeting-house built in 1670, and rebuilt in 171 5. 
Services had earlier been held in a barn by the 
Reverend John Moore" the successor of Mr. 
Doughty. On his death, the people petitioned the 
Director-General and Council for another minister, 
lest "some of the Inhabitants be led away by the 
intrusion of Quakers and other Heretics." 

Nieuw Nederlandt had enjoyed a fair degree of 
liberty of conscience, until, in 1656, the Domines 
Driisus and Mcgapolensis complained to Stuyvesant 
that unfit persons were holding conventicles and 
preaching at Middelburgh, " From which nothing 
could be expected but discord, confusion and dis- 
order in Church and State." A proclamation was 

' The Patent was made out to 

Captain Richard IJetts Joris Burger 

" Thos. Lawrence John Burroughs 

" John Coe Daniel Whitehead 

Ralph (?) 

^ Mr. Moore came to Southampton in 1641, and for a few years 
his name often appears on the Town Books there. In 1646, he was 
a student at Harvard College. In i65i,hc was at Hempstead. He 
died at Middelburg in 1657, leaving four sons. On their estate 
originated the matchless Newtown Pippin whose delicate flavour car- 
ries over the seas the name of our Long Island township. A writer 
in the Philadelphia Evening Post of October 10, 1776, points an 
antithesis by declaring the difference as great as "between a crab- 
apple and Newtown pippins." 



1/2 EARLY LONG LSLAND. 

issued February i, 1657, forbiding any person to 
preach without direct permission from the Director- 
General and condemning all teachings which differed 
from the doctrines of the Synod of Dort, which " was 
not only lawfid but commanded by God." A fine 
of one hundred pounds was imposed on all unli- 
censed preachers, ami twenty-five pounds on all per- 
sons attending their services. This penal law, the 
first against freedom of conscience within the bounds 
of Nieuw Nederlandt, was to "promote the glory of 
God, the increase of the Reformed Religion and the 
Peace and Harmony of the Country." 

About this time, Domine Megapolensis addressed 
the Classis of Amsterdam on " the State of Religion 
in Nieuw Nederlandt," saying : " The people of 
Gravesend are Mennonists ; Middelburgh was partly 
Independent, with many Presbyterians too poor to 
support a preacher." At Heemstede, he continues, 
was the Reverend Richard Denton, "an honest, 
pious, learned man who hath in all things conformed 
to our Church," and "to whom the Independents 
did not object to listen until he began to baptise the 
children of those not in the church." 

When, in 1693, the Island was divided into 
ecclesiastical districts, Newtown, Flushing, and 
Jamaica formed one parish, paying sixty pounds, 
yearly, for the support of a clergyman resident at 
Jamaica. 

In 1706, Newtown was the scene of the lawless 
arrest of Francis Mackemie and John Hampton, 
Presbyterian preachers travelling from Virginia. 
Mackemie had preached in New York on Sunday, in 



THE FIRST METHODIST SOCIETY. I'Jl 

a private house on Pearl Street, and then followed 
Hampton to Newtown, where the latter spoke in a 
" publick Meeting-house," offered by the inhabitants. 
Lord Cornbury issued a warrant to Thomas Cardell, 
High Sheriff of Queens, to bring them to " Fort 
Anne from New-Town on Long Island where they 
have gone with intent to spread their Pernicious 
Doctrine and Principles to the great disturbance of 
the Church established by Law and of the Govern- 
ment of this Province." On their arrest they were 
taken to Jamaica and detained for a single day. Of 
this they complain, as being " carried about in Tri- 
umph, to be Insulted as Exemplary Criminals." ' 

But Newtown was not intimidated, and was never 
slow to welcome new doctrines. There, in 1766, 
was founded at the Middle Village, as Middelburgh 
began to be called, the first Methodist Episcopal 
" Society" on Long Island, and, save the old John 
Street Church, dating from 1764, the oldest in 
America." 

Flushing, although in undisputed Dutch territory, 
was first settled in 1645 by a band of English plant- 
ers who had lived in Holland. They came hither 
from Lynn on the representation of the Dutch 
agents of Nieuw Nederlandt. In the fall, October 
19th, a patent for sixteen thousand acres " in the 

' See a curious account of their trial in Force's Colonial Tracts, 
vol. iv. : "A Narrative of a New and Unusual American Imprison- 
ment of two Presbyterian Ministers and Prosecution of Mr. ffrancis 
Mackemie." 

"^ The Society was originated in her own house, by Mrs. James 
Harper, the mother of the founder of the firm of Harper & Brothers. 



174 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

unexplored land east of Mespat," was made out to 
Thomas ffarrington, John Lawrence, John Town- 
send and others. They called their possession 
Vlissingen, the name passing by easy transition from 
that of the Zealand town, through Vlissing, to 
Flushing. 

In 1647, Farret appeared with a power of attorney 
from Lady Sterling. He at once assumed the title of 
Governor of Long Island, under the Countess Dow- 
ager of Sterling. The Schout of Flushing reported 
him to Stuyvesant, and the next day Farret went 
to Nieuw Amsterdam to compare commissions with 
the Director-General. Stuyvesant, offended by his 
" very consequential " bearing, ordered him arrested 
and brought before the Eight Men. They refused 
to consider his claim as having any foundation, and 
put him on board the Fa/coner, bound for Holland. 
He escaped at an English port, but never again 
interfered with Long Island. 

Under Dutch protection, safe from Indian assault, 
secure in the tenure of land, the early days of Flush- 
ing should have passed more quietly than had done 
the first years of the neighbouring towns. But it did 
not escape the theological turmoils of the time. 
The Reverend Francis Doughty, that ecclesiastical 
firebrand, came here from Newtown in 1647, and was 
the first minister of the English population, at a 
salary of six hundred guilders.' Captain John 
Underbill, as acute in doctrine as valiant on the 

* The salary was never paid. When he began a suit for its recovery, 
it was found that the contract was destroyed, William Lawrence's 
wife having " put it under a pye." 



PERSECUTIOM OF THE QUAKERS. 1 75 

field, and as quick in scenting a heresy as in follow- 
ing an Indian trail, silenced his preaching as hetero- 
dox. After the influx of Quakerism, he became a 
convert to all its doctrines but those of peace, and 
for many years his bickerings harassed the com- 
munity. Stuyvesant's proclamation of 1656 was 
rigorously enforced. William Wickenden, " foment- 
or of error," a poor cobbler from Rhode Island, 
began to preach and " to dip people in the river." 
Meanwhile, William Hallet, the Sheriff, had per- 
mitted " Conventicles " to be held in his own house. 
He was deposed from ofifice and fined fifty pounds. 
Wickenden, unable to pay any fine, was banished. 

The next year, 1657, a ship, the Woodhouse, 
arrived at Nieuw Amsterdam, August 6th, among 
whose passengers were several Quakers. Most of 
them went at once to Rhode Island, '* where all 
kinds of scum doth dwell," wrote Domine Megapo- 
lensis to the Classis of Amsterdam. A few remained 
on Long Island. Robert Hodgson, their leader, was 
well received at Flushing, but, going to preach at 
Hempstead, was arrested by Richard Gildersleeve 
and sent to the dungeon of Fort Amsterdam. By 
the report of the Friends themselves, the Director- 
General was pronounced " moderate both in words 
and action." But heresy was not to be lightly 
passed by. Incurring a severe sentence, Hodgson 
was finally set free, only by the intercession of 
Dame Annetje Bayard. 

Henry Townsend had held meetings at his house 
in Jamaica. He was ordered to pay a fine of eight 
pounds Flemish, or to leave the country within six 



176 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

weeks.' A proclamation followed, imposing a fine 
of fifty pounds for sheltering a Quaker a single night, 
one half going to the informer. Any vessel bring- 
ing Quakers to the Province was to be confiscated. 
Flushing, in a noble " Remonstrance," ° refused 
obedience. They based their protest on " the law of 
love, liberty and peace in the state extending to 
Jews, Turks and Egyptians, as they are considered 
the sons of Adam which is the glory of our State of 
Holland,^ so love, peace and liberty, extending to 
all in Christ Jesus, condemns hatred, war and 
bondage." 

This Remonstrance was carried to Nieuw Amster- 
dam by Tobias Feake, Schout of Flushing. He was 
arrested, together with Edward Hart, the Town 
Clerk, and two magistrates of the town. The latter 
were released after a fortnight's imprisonment, and 
the chief vengeance was reserved for Mr. Feake. 
He had lodged some of the " heretical and abomina- 
ble sect called Quakers," and had been active in 
getting signatures to the " seditious and detestable 
chartable " above named. For these grave offences 
he was to be degraded from ofifice, and to be fined 
two hundred guilders, or to be banished. 

" To prevent in future, the disorders arising from 

* Disregarding the order, he was further fined one hundred pounds. 
Still refusing to close his doors, he was imprisoned in Fort Amster- 
dam, and was only released through the insistence of his friends who 
made up the amount of the fine in young cattle and horses. 

* December 29, 1659, signed by twenty-nine freeholders of Flush- 
ing, and John and Henry Townsend of Jamaica. 

^ Note that the English settlers hereby admitted themselves the 
subjects of Holland. 



''PREJUDICIAL'' TOWN MEETINGS. 1 77 

Town Meetings, as these are very prejudicial," 
they were henceforth forbidden. Stuyvesant then 
changed the original charter of Flushing, restricting 
their privileges. A " Vroedscap" or Board of seven 
of " the best, most prudent and most reputable In- 
habitants," were appointed to consult with the 
Schout and magistrates. Whatever they might 
agree upon in regard to local affairs, was then to be 
" submitted to the Inhabitants in general." As 
there had been for some time no " good, pious, 
orthodox minister," they were ordered to procure 
such a one, to be supported by a tax of twelve 
stuyvers on every morgen of land. All persons not 
consenting to this arrangement were desired to leave 
the town. 

Finally, the Director-General proclaimed a Fast 
on January 29, 1658, to lament over the " raising 
up and propagating a new, unheard-of, abominable 
heresy called Quakers." But, in spite of persecu- 
tions and contumely, perhaps on that very account, 
the Friends were soon well established in Flushing. 
Hawks's Manuscript says of the town : " Most of 
the inhabitants are Quakers who rove through the 
country from one village to another, talk blasphemy, 
corrupting the young and do much mischief." 

John Bowne from Matlock, Derbyshire, was one 
of the earliest friends of the new religionists, and a 
protomartyr of their cause. His house," opened to 

' Ilis house, built in i66r, is still standing on Bowne Avenue, 
Flushing. It is a quaint example of one style of the older Colonial 
architecture and is in perfect preservation. There lived six succes- 
sive John Bownes, the last one dying in 1804, During the Revolu- 



178 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

their meetings, was soon reported to the magistrates 
as a dangerous Conventicle. Mr. Bovvne was fined 
twenty-five pounds, which he refused to pay. He 
was then imprisoned at Fort Amsterdam for three 
months, " for the welfare of the community, and to 
crush out as far as possible that abominable sect 
who treat with contempt both the political magis- 
trates and the ministers of God's holy word." ' 

The sentence further ordered him to be trans- 
ported, should he " continue obstinate and pervica- 
cious," and so he was sent to Amsterdam on the 
Gilded Fox. There, he appealed to the West India 
Company, who at once released him and rebuked the 
over-zeal of Stuy vesant. After two years, Mr. Bowne 
returned to Flushing, to continue the warm friend 
of the much-enduring " people in Skorne Railed 
Quakers." It was to his house that George Fox 
came in 1672. Some of the old oaks under which 
Fox preached, stood for more than two centuries, 
eloquent types of the vitality of a pure and simple 
faith. 

The West India Company had already written to 
Stuyvesant counselling moderation. They added 
that " some connivance is useful, and the conscience 

tion, it was the Head-Quarters of the Hessian officers stationed in 
Flushing, while the Friends' Meeting-house, built in 1691, with 
pyramidal roof and shingled sides, was used as a store house, hospi- 
tal, and prison. 

' The next week another proclamation forbade the exercise of any 
but the Reformed Religion "in houses, bams, ships, woods, or 
fields." For violation of the order was a fine of fifty guilders for 
tlie first offence ; one hundred for the second, and two hundred, with 
" correction," for the third. 



ADVICE OF THE WEST INDIA COMPANY. 1 79 

of men should remain free and unshackled. Let 
every one remain free as long as he is modest, mod- 
erate, and his political conduct irreproachable, and 
he does not offend others, or the Government. This 
maxim of moderation has always been the guide of 
our city, hence people have flocked from every land 
to this asylum. Tread thus in their footsteps, and 
we doubt not you will be blessed." 

But this policy was not followed in the adjoining 
towns. Hempstead harried the inoffensive zealots 
out of her domain. Jamaica bound herself to pro- 
ceed against them.' The English Conquest brought 
no lenity in their treatment. The Friends them- 
selves, not long after that event, addressed the 
Governor and Council in regard to that clause in 
the Charter of Liberties which should establish free- 
dom of conscience. They protested against their 
disfranchisement, and they published " An Account 
of what hath been taken from our ffriends in New 
York Government," which is but one of many simi- 
lar documents.'^ Yet, the Friends increased in num- 

' "Wee whose names are underwritten doe by these presents 
promise and engage tliat iff any Meetings or Conventicles shall bee 
in this town off Rustdorpe thot wee know off, then wee will give in- 
formation to the aiighthorities of the towne against any suche person 
or persons called Quakers as need shall require. Witness our hand 
this II day of ffebruary in the yeare 1961, SHI. nov. 

" Daniel Denton, Ckrk." 
[Signed by fifteen others.] 
Jamaica Town Book, i., p. 120. 

^ " Taken away from Henry Willis, the 15th of ye first Mo. 1667, 
by Richard Wintherne, Const. & Richard Gilderse, Collector for not 
paying toward the Building of the Briest's Dwelling House at Hamp- 
stead, their Demande being ;^i:i4. one Cowe valued at .£^:io. 



l80 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

ber and influence. At the Yearly Meeting at the 
house of Walter Newberry in Rhode Island on the 
14th of Fourth Month, 1695, their status was recog- 
nised. It was there " agreeded that the meetings 
on Long Island shall be from this time a General 
Meeting and that John Bowne and John Rodman 
shall take care to receive all such papers as shall 
come to the Yearly Meeting on Long Island and 
correspond with Friends appointed in London." 

The Men's Meeting in Flushing has preserved a 
most interesting series of records beginning in 1703. 
They are a curious set of books, a valuable mine of 
data for sociological study, and written between the 
lines is the universal truth that the persecuted are 
not the tolerant. No hierarchy could watch more 
carefully the conduct and the beliefs of its subjects. 
Most of the discipline refers to the performance of 
military duty and to the frequency of " marrying 
out " — outside the roll of " the Meeting." For 
example: "A. B. promises to go no more to plays, 
and is sorry that he has gone from the truth in 
marriage and by the assistance of a hireling priest." * 
There was no more grave offence than the latter. 
" C. D, contrary to the good order established 

"Taken from Edward Titus ye 15th 1st Mo i685 for not paying 
the Priest's waidges at Hampstead, by Sam'l Emery, Const. & 
Francis Chappie, Coll. 4 young cattle almost a year old, and from 
Jasper Smith the iSth day, loth Mo. 1686, by John ffarrington, for 
not Traineing, a two year old heffer, vallued at £1.10." — Doc. Hist. 
of N^ew York, vol. iii., p. 1005. 

' More loyal to his bride was Thomas Cock, who, when brought 
before the Elders for marrying out, declared he "could not say he 
was sorry without using falsehood and hypocrisy, which was a sin." 



''MARRYING OUT." l8l 

amongst us hath fetched a Priest to marry M. and 
N., and hath Hkewise gone to a horse race and hav- 
ing been dealt with tenderly by this Meeting in order 
to bring him to a sense of his misconduct therein, 
which proving ineffectual, this Meeting hereby dis- 
owns the said C. D." 

The form of Marriage Banns was adhered to with 
great exactness, and was well planned to prevent 
inconsiderate marriages, or undue haste therein : 

" At the Monthly Meeting appeared M., son of 

, and N., daughter of , and declare their 

intention of taking each other in marriage. A. and 
B. are desired to inquire into the clearness of the 
man in Relation to Marriage, and to Report at the 
next Monthly Meeting at which it is expected the 
young friends will come for an answer." A month 
later is a second announcement to the patient lovers : 
" M. and N. appeared the second time, declaring 
themselves still of the same mind respecting mar- 
riage and nothing appearing to obstruct their ap- 
pearing therein, this Meeting leaves them free to 
accomplish the same according to the good order 
used among Friends, and A. and B. are appointed 
to see it done and to report to the next Monthly 
Meeting." At that time, it is entered on the minutes, 
that " A. and B. reports that the marriage of M. and 
N. is accomplished according to the good order of the 
truth." 

The levies for the French and Indian Wars made 
their demands upon the Friends, as well as on the 
" world's people." In 1759, " It was reported at this 
Meeting that Benjamin Thorne has hired a man to 



1 82 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

go in the Army to War in his Son's Stead, also, that 
John Rodman has hired a man to go in his Rum." 
A few months later, " It appears to this meeting, by 
the persons appointed to speak to Benjamin Thorne, 
as also his owne mouth that hee still continews vn- 
willing to condemn his Miss conduct in Hireing a 
man to goe to War in his Son's Stead, or to give 
Friends Satisfaction for the Same, it is the Judg- 
ment of the Meeting that wee can have no younity 
with such Practices, nor with him vntill hee both 
condemn and leave the same." The report in regard 
to John Rodman gives his answer that his " hireing 
A Man in his Roome for the Expedition was not 
unadvised, but the result of Mature consideration and 
if the like occasion offered, he should doe it againe." 

Offending members were dealt with gently, if per- 
sistently, and usually accepted the discipline in the 
spirit in which it was given, but if the offender was 
not soon amenable to kind remonstrance, his name 
was dropped from the roll of the meeting. These 
old records give, in 1765, the confession of one who 
had " For some time past, contrary to Friends' prin- 
ciples been concerned in the Importation of Negroes 
from Africa which has caused some uneasiness of 
mind. I think I can now say," he continues, *' I am 
sorry I have ever had any concern in that trade and 
hope I shall hereafter conduct myself more agreeable 
to Friends' principles." 

Another member is disciplined for ** Drinking, 
gaiming, and giving of money to support the Warre. 
Much labour of love hath been spent with him 
which proveth ineffectual and as Friends cannot 



DISCIPLINE OF THE MEETING. 1 83 

have unity with such practises, nor, with him un- 
til he condemns them, therefore it is the judg- 
ment of the Meeting that hee should be disowned." 

Notwithstanding their efforts to maintain a serious 
walk in life, the prejudice against the Friends held 
them responsible for many disorders in conduct and 
in doctrine. Even unusual natural phenoinena were 
sometimes attributed to their malign influence,' so 
hard was it then not to invent an unnatural sequence 
of cause and effect. 

When, in 1660, a dozen newly arrived Frenchmen 
settled Bushvvick, a few others of the party went to 
Flushing. There they began the careful horticul- 
ture for which the old town has ever since been 
famous. As the chivalric Champlain, a generation 
earlier, amid strife of Huron and Algonquin, amid 
selfish traders and over-zealous priests, sought dis- 
traction in his garden, and planted roses on the nar- 
row strand beneath the grim rock of Quebec, so 
these grave Huguenots, in every stress of fortune, 
preserved their love of Mother Earth. Their names 
are forgotten, their rigid creed is superseded, little 
impress is left by them on civil records or political 
thought ; no Gallic influence can be traced in the 

' In the Mather Papers is preserved a letter to Increase Mather 
from the Reverend Edward Taylor, written January 5, 1683 : "At 
ffarmington was seen by six or seven men about 10 o'clocke at night, 
a Ijlack Streake in the Skie like a Rainbow passing from S. W. to N. 
E. and continued about 3 hours and then disappeared. While about 
this time it was credil)ly reported with vs that the Quakers upon 
Long Island upon the Lord's day were to have a horse-race, and 
being met together, the Riders mounted for the Race were dis- 
mounted again by the All Righteous Act of an angry olTended Jus- 
tice striking them with torturing paines whereof they both dyed." 



1 84 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

life or manners of Flushing ; their only sweet memo- 
rial is in the Lady Apple, the Belle Pear, and the 
Pomme Royale or Spice Apple of the older New 
York homesteads. 

This impulse, early given, was not lost. Prince's 
Nurseries were laid out in 1737.' A Linnaean Botani- 
cal Garden " was founded and many European trees 
imported. The early advertisements of the Nursery 
show its range: apple, plum, peach, nectarine, apri- 
cot, cherry, and pear-trees are offered for sale, as 
also, 

" Carolina Magnolia Flow^er trees. 

Catalpas. 

Barcelona filbert-trees 

Lisbon and Madairia Grape-vines." 

From Flushing, horticultural skill spread widely. 
In 1767, the Society for the Promotion of Agricul- 
ture gave a premium of ten pounds to Thomas 
Youngs, of Oyster Bay, for a nursery of over twenty- 
seven thousand grafted apple-trees. The extent of 
the Flushing nurseries may be judged when one 
reads that during the Revolution thirty thousand 
young grafted cherry-trees were cut for hoop-poles. 
This vandalism was despite the fact that General 
Howe, in entering the town after the Battle of 
Brooklyn, placed a special guard to " protect the 
Gardens and Nurseries of Mr. Prince." 

Flushing was then famous for its luxuriant wheat- 

* By Thomas Prince, a lineal descendant of Governor Thomas 
Prence, of Plymouth Colony. 

^ As late as 1823, the anniversary of the birth of Linnaeus was 
there celebrated, May 24th, and an eloquent address made by Dr. 
Samuel Latham Mitchell. 



FRUIT-CULTURE IN FLUSHING. 1 8$ 

fields. During the war they suffered greatly from 
a new insect enemy/ the Cecidomyia destriictor, 
named, in apt analogy, the Hessian fly. The experi- 
ments of the millers Burling, on southern grains, 
finally discovered a variety of v/hich the stock was 
hard enough to resist the fly. 

Flushing may proudly recall the residence of one 
of the earliest and most philosophically scientific 
men in America. About 1720, a young Scotchman 
who had practised medicine in Philadelphia, came to 
New York. Cadwallader Golden then began a career 
as statesman, as eminent as the position to which 
his attainments in Botany and Physics entitled the 
friend o^ Linnaeus. He held in succession various 
high colonial ofifices. During the fifteen years of 
his service as Lieutenant-Governor of the Province 
of New York, he lived chiefly on his estate of Spring 
Hill, in Flushing, bought in 1762. This beautiful 
spot was his home, except for a brief retirement to 
his farm of Goldenham, near Newburgh, whence he 
returned in his eighty-eighth year to die at Spring 
Hill, in September, 1776. 

He was the honoured correspondent of Linnseus 
and Kalm, of Gollinson and Gronovius. On present- 
ing to Linnaeus his monograph on the plants of 
Orange County," the genus Coldenia was named in 

^ " Wheat they grow none, as it is always spoiled by a mildew. 
They tell me they used to have good wheat, but since the commence- 
ment of the war they can get none ; for this malady, many of the 
people are superstitious enough to believe was brought into the country 
by the English Army." — Varlo's Tour in America^ 1784. 

^ Plants Coldenhama in Provincia Nova Eborancensis spontana 
crescentis qua ad Methodium Linnai Sexualem, 1743. Two hun- 
dred and fifty-seven plants are therein classified and described. 



1 86 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

his honour. He wrote various treatises on Mathe- 
matics and Physics/ and was author of a History of 
the Five Indiaji Nations, published by Bradford, 
the first local history printed in New York. In 
public and private life he was equally beloved. 
"Worthy Old Silver-locks " was his familiar name. 
He pursued an even course through the last dis- 
tracted years of his life, and his timely death spared 
him the manifestation of the ingratitude ignomini- 
ously shown his sons. 

De Vries, in the Journal of his third voyage, re- 
lates that on June 4, 1639, he anchored " in the east- 
ern haven, a commodious haven on the north of Long 
Island. This haven is in the Island upward of two 
miles wide. We found fine oysters there, from which 
the Dutch call it Oyster Bay." Two years later, van 
Tienhoven writes that " Oyster Bay, so called from 
the abundance of fine and delicate oysters which are 
found there, is a short league across at the mouth, 
deep and navigable, without either rocks or sands ; it 
runs inland nearly west and divides itself into two 
rivers, which are broad and clear, on which lie some 
fine maize lands. This land is situate on such a 
beautiful bay and river that it could at little cost be 
converted into good farms for the plough. There 
are also some fine hay-valleys." 

The first land bought by the English in Oyster 

' Among them were An Introduction to the Doctrine of Fluxions, 
or The Arithmetic of Injinities, 1743 ; Explication of the First Causes 
in Matter, 1745 ; Principles of Action in Matter, 1752 ; and Gravi- 
tation of Bodies Explained fro?n these Principles. He asserted Light 
to be the cause of Gravitation, and was confident of the final accept- 
ance of his hypothesis. 



A LAND GRANT. 1 8/ 

Bay was in the summer of 1639, by one Matthew 
Sinderland, seaman, of Boston, and James Farrett, 
Gentleman, in behalf of the Earl of Sterling. The 
transaction was probably never completed, but the 
document remains a quaint memorial of the times: 
" Know all men whom this p'snt writeing may con- 
cearn, that I, James ffarret Gent. Deputy to the 
Right Honourable, the Earle of Starelinge, doe by 
these p'snts in the name and behalfe of the saide 
Earle and in my own name as his deputy as it doth 
or may in any way concerne myselfe, give and 
graunt free liberty unto Matthew Sinderland, sea- 
man at Boston in New England, to possesse and 
ymprove and enjoy two little necks of land the 
one upon the east side of Oyster Bay Harbour, 
w'ch two necks and every part of them and all 
belonging thereunto, or, that the aforesaid two 
necks may afford, to remaine to the said Matthew 
Sunderland his hieres and assigns, for now and ever 
with full power to the said Matthew to dispose 
thereof at his own pleasure. 

" But foreasmuch as it hath pleased our Royall 
King to grant a Patente of Long Island to the said 
Earle of Sterling in consideration whereof it is 
agreed upon that the said Matthew Sinderland 
should pay, or cause to be paid yearly to the saide 
Earle or his Deputy tenn shillings lawful money of 
England, and the first payment to bee and beginn 
upon Lady Day next ensuinge in the year of God, 
1640, yeares so to continue. And it shall be lawful 
for the said Matthew to compound and agree with 
the Indians that now have the possession of the 



1 8 8 EARLY L ONG I SLA ND. 

said necks for their consent and goodwill. In wit- 
ness whereof I have sett my hand and seale this day 
beinge the iSth of June, 1639. 

" James ffarrett." 

The excellence of the harbour at Oyster Bay made 
the bordering region long a disputed ground. The 
Commission ' to adjust the Hartford Treat}', Sep- 
tember 29, 1650, gave to the English, all land east 
of the west side of Oyster Bay ; to the Dutch, all to 
the westward. The Dutch immediately settled at 
their extreme limits, but the " westernmost part of 
Oyster Bay " was too vague to be decisive. It gave 
Stuyvesant grounds for rejecting the work of the 
Commission, and the English still claimed as far 
west as Hempstead Harbour. He finally wrote to 
the Directors in Holland, July 23, 1659, as follows: 
" The only question is about the location of Oyster 
Bay. The oldest inhabitants of Nieuw Nederlandt 
place it two and a half leagues farther east than the 
oldest residents of New England. The land com- 
prised in these two and a half leagues is of a very 
poor and sterile nature, but the location of the Bay 
is of greater consequence for if it remains in the pos- 
session of and is settled by the English, it will be an 
open door for all smugglers. To prevent this it is 
necessary to build a fort or Blockhouse." This was 
ordered done by the Directors, but there were con- 
tinued delays, and much ineffectual correspondence 

' The Commissioners of the United Colonies of New England, 
were Simon Bradstreet and Thomas Prence ; of Nieuw Nederlandt, 
Thomas Willet and George Baxter. 



ENGLISH SETTLEMENT. 1 89 

between Stuyvesant and the Honourable Board in 
Amsterdam. 

The first attempt at English settlement had been 
already made on the site of the present village of 
Oyster Bay, in the spring of 1640. Thither came 
Captain Edward Tomlyns, a man of distinction in 
Lynn, his brother, Timothy Tomlyns, and a few 
others. No consent had been asked, either of the 
Dutch, or of Lord Sterling's deputy who addressed 
to Winthrop a vigorous protest against their action. 
The Dutch, nearer at hand, at once resented the 
intrusion and harried them from the land. For 
some years later there was no organised effort at 
English colonisation. 

The first actual transfer of land in the township 
of Oyster Bay was by an Indian deed,' given, in 
1653, to Peter Wright, Samuel Mayo, and William 
Leveredge,"" with whom were soon associated Wil- 
liam Washburne and his son John. In view of the 
expected settlement, the Council of Nieuw Amster- 
dam sent to the General Court of Hartford a pro- 
test against this violation of the Treaty of 1650. 
No attention was paid to the remonstrance, and the 

' In this Indian deed, Centre Island was reserved by the native 
owners, but it was soon after bought by a company of New York 
merchants, Govert Lockermann and others, who, in 1665, transferred 
it to the town of Oyster Bay. 

''■ In 1633, one of Winthrop's letters mentions the coming of " Mr. 
Leveridge, a godly minister, to Pascataquak." He joined the 
Church at Salem, August g, 1635. Huljbard, who calls him " an 
able, an worthie minister," says, that "for want of encouragement 
at Wiggins' Plantation of Dover, he moved more southward toward 
Plymouth, or Long Island." He had already been at Sandwich as 
an Indian teacher. 



1 90 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

Dutch concluded the point was not worth fighting 
about. 

Of the original proprietors, Mr. Wright was the 
only one who then settled there. Others soon fol- 
lowed, and of these few settlers, all were determined 
to be subjects of England rather than of Holland. 
In May, 1660, they made a declaration of loyalty to 
Charles II. and of their wish to be under English 
rule. Affairs were in a critical state. In the Town 
Meeting which had already developed its function as 
a primary source of power, it was resolved December 
13, 1660, that " No person should intermeddle to 
put the Town under English or Dutch until all dif- 
ferences were ended," under penalty of fifty pounds. 
Early in 1662, the people assert their allegiance to 
England and their determination to resist any other 
authority. The Town then formed a closer alliance 
with New Haven, and to some extent acknowledged 
its jurisdiction." 

The boundary disputes at Oyster Bay were not 
only between the English and Dutch, but existed in 
lesser degree between themselves and the adjoining 
townships. In 1669, the Town Clerk, Thomas Har- 
vey, addresses his " Friends and Neighbours of the 
Town of Huntington," saying: "We once more de- 
sire you in a loveing and friendly way to forbear 
mowing of our neck of meadow which ye have pre- 
sumptiously mowed these many years, and, if after 

' " In 1654, some debateable ground at Oyster Bay was bought 
from the Indians by Wright, Mayo and others from Sandwich, Mass., 
who applied to be received into the jurisdiction of New Haven." In 
1657, men from both Oyster Bay and Hempstead sat as jurors at 
New Haven. 



PURCHASE OF LLOYD'S NECK. I9I 

SO many friendly warnings, ye will not forbear, ye 
will force us to seek our remedy in Law." 

The Neck in question is Caumsett, or Lloyd's 
Neck, geographically a part of Suffolk County, to 
which it has been very lately annexed. Bought of 
the Indians in 1654, for three coats, three shirts, two 
pairs of hose and of shoes, three hatchets, three cut- 
toes, six knives, and two fathoms of wampum, it was 
sold in 1659 for one hundred pounds, and eight 
years later for four hundred and fifty pounds. In 
1679, James Lloyd, a rich merchant of Boston, be- 
came its sole owner in right of his wife. Grizzle Syl- 
vester.' Governor Dongan, in 1685, erected the 
estate into the Manor of Queen's Village, the only 
manorial domain in the county. A quit-rent of 
four bushels of " good winter wheate " was to be 
paid on Lady-Day. It was joined to Queens 
County in 1691, but the disputes over the boundary 
line separating it from Huntington still continued, 
until, in 1734, they were finally settled by a board of 
arbitrators in favour of Oyster Bay. 

In 1663, the Indians of Martinecock sold to Cap- 
tain John Underbill his estate of Kenilworth on 
which he lies buried, and which is still held by his 
direct descendants. His grave, beneath gnarled 

' In 1668, Lattimer Sampson of Oyster Bay, intending to "travel 
to Barbados," then a half-way port between New York and London, 
and "well knowing the casualty of man's life and the certainty of 
death," made his will, bequeathing his entire estate, real and per- 
sonal, to his betrothed, Grizzle Sylvester of Shelter Island. The 
premonition was a true warning. Mr. Sampson died on his voyage, 
and Grizzle Sylvester, thus the owner of Caumsett, afterward married 
Mr. Lloyd. 



192 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

cedars, is on a lofty point overlooking the blue 
Sound, fit resting-place for him whose strong char- 
acter had dominated the land in which he chose his 
home. 

John Undcrhill, well called the " most dramatic 
person in our early history," is everywhere promi- 
nent in the first quarter century of Long Island 
colonisation. Of an old Warwickshire family, his 
father, Sir John Underhill, is said to have been the 
owner of the New Place at Stratford, previous to its 
purchase by Shakespeare. Coming to Massachusetts 
as early as 1630, he was the Miles Standish of the 
Bay Colony. At the second meeting of the Gov- 
ernor and Assistants of the Massachusetts Bay, Sep- 
tember 7, 1630, they provide for the yearly support 
of Captain John Underhill and Captain Daniel Pat- 
rick, military instructors of the Colony. This was 
done for seven years. Boston gave him a pension 
of thirty pounds for his services against the Indians. 
He was sent to command the new fort at Saybrook, 
and was with Mason in the destruction of the Indian 
camp on the Mystic. 

He was the personal and political friend of the 
young Vane, whom he followed to England in 1638. 
While there, he published his Nevves from America, 
a Neiv and Experimental Discoverie of Netv England : 
containing a trne Relation of warlike proceedings there, 
these two years past, with a figure of an I)idian pali- 
sado : by John Underhill, Commander of the Warres 
there. London, printed i6jS. 

Before leaving Boston, Captain Underhill had 
fallen under suspicion as an adherent of Anne 



JOHN UNDERIIILL. 1 93 

Hutchinson and had been disfranchised for protesting 
against the condemnation of her brother-in-law, Mr. 
Wheelwright, and was denounced as " one of the 
most forward of the Boston Enthusiasts." But on 
his return to America, he was, in 1641, made Gov- 
ernor of Exeter and Dover. His term of ofifice was 
shortened by new difificulties with the church, both 
there and in Boston, where he had already sat upon 
the Stool of Repentance, and, in the white sheet of 
the penitent, had bewailed his sins. But he was 
finally excommunicated and came to Nieuw Amster- 
dam confident of finding a more liberal government. 
In 1643, he was in the Dutch service as Captain Jan 
van der Hyl, in command of the force sent out 
against the Indians of Connecticut and Westchester 
County, as well as on Long Island. But the alle- 
giance of this free lance was lightly held. When, later, 
the United Colonies refused to take part in the war 
between England and Holland, he offered his sword 
to Rhode Island, and was given a commission " to 
go against the Dutch, or any enemy of the Com- 
monwealth of England." 

Underhill was active in fomenting the discords 
which led to Nicoll's easy victory over Nieuw Neder- 
landt. He was a member of the famous Hempstead 
Convention of 1665, and was there appointed High 
Sheriff of the North Riding of the newly erected 
Yorkshire. Later, he was Surveyour-General of the 
Island, and throughout his life was influential in all 
its affairs. 

A little west of the village of Oyster Bay, on the 
Townsend land, is an old burial-ground, then in the 



194 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

heart of the forest. There still remains a great 
granite bowlder from which George Fox preached' 
in May, 1672, giving new zeal to his sorely beset 
adherents. 

Although not on official record, it is an established 
fact, that on May 24, 1668, the sachems, Werough 
and Suscanemon of the Martinecock tribe deeded 
to Joseph Carpenter, of the Providence Plantations, 
lands " on both sydes of Muscete Coufe." Joseph 
Carpenter had made application to Governor NicoU 
for such a grant six weeks before, in order " to set- 
tle two or three plantacions and erect a Saw-Mill 
and a Fulling Mill which may prove very advanta- 
Sfious and be much to the welfare of the Inhabitants 
in General within this Government." Soon after, 
Joseph Carpenter admitted as " co-partners and 
equal purchasers," Nathaniel Colles (Coles), Abiah 
Carpenter, Thomas Townsend, and Robbard Colles, 
under terms which are preserved in " The Musketa 
Cove Record," written by Thomas Townsend. This 
most valuable old manuscript is entitled : 

" A true Record of Entryes for ye purchasers and 
proprietours of Muscheda Cove. By Agreement 
bearing date ye 30th of November, 1668." 

^ George Fox writes in his Journal of travelling from New Jersey 
to Oyster Bay, by way of Gravesend and Flushing ; "The Half- 
Year's Meeting began next day which was the first day of the week 
and lasted four days. H ere we met with some bad spirits who had run 
out from truth into prejudice, contention and opposition to the order 
of truth and to Friends therein." A meeting was called to reason 
with these backsliders, "where the Lord's power broke gloriously 
forth to the confounding of the gainsayers . . . which was of 
great service to truth and great comfort and satisfaction to Friends." 



FREELOVE TOWNSEND'S DOWER. I95 

Joseph Carpenter then built * a grist-mill and a 
dwelling-house on a spot long called The Place, the 
centre of the village of Glen Cove." 

The township of Oyster Bay extends from the 
Sound to the Atlantic but the South Side was not 
settled until nearly a generation later. In 1693, the 
Massapequa Indians sold Fort Neck, and the sur- 
rounding country, six thousand acres, to Thomas 
Townsend for ^15 currency. Mr. Townsend made 
it a wedding-gift to his daughter Freelove, at her 
marriage to Major Thomas Jones, hero of the Boyne, 
commissioned buccaneer, later, High Sheriff of 
Queens, Ranger-General of the Island of Nassau. 
In 1697, Major Jones built upon Fort Neck, " a 
faire brick mansion," which stood until 1837, the 
American " Stamm-Schloss " of the Long Island 
family of Jones.' 

A little later, Dutch families from Kings and 
western Queens began to move into Oyster Bay, and 

' See the Historical Address given by Mr. George W. Cocks on the 
two hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary of Glen Cove, celebrated 
May 24, 1893. 

^ The name Musquito Cove was legally retained until 1834, 
although Pembroke had been more or less in use for over fifty years. 
At the meeting to consider the adoption of a new name, Pembroke, 
Circassia, and Glencoe were the most favoured of the names proposed. 
The latter was misunderstood as Glen Cove and accepted by accla- 
mation. 

^ It was long known as " The Pirate's House," and was reputed 
to be haunted. Tradition says that as Major Jones, the whilom 
" pirate," lay on his death-bed, a great black bird hovered above. 
As the breath ceased, the bird made its exit through the western wall 
of the house. All efforts to close the hole were unavailing, it being 
always reopened at night by some mysterious power. 

Major Jones of Welsh descent, but born in Strabane, Ireland, was 



196 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

settle at Cedar Swamp, Wolver Hollow, Norwich, 
and East Wood.' Once in six weeks they drove 
twenty miles across The Plains to the Dutch 
Church at Jamaica. In 1732, they formed a distinct 
" Kerch-buurte," and built their own meeting-house 
in a grove of hickory trees at Wolver's Hollow. In 
this church, which stood just one hundred years, the 
men's sittings were rented at twenty-five shillings 
the year, while the women sat in chairs brought 
from their homes. 

Jericho was part of the purchase made in 1650, by 
Robert Williams, a near kinsman of the founder of 
the Providence Plantations. Many friends settled 
there, and a Meeting-house was built in 1689, The 
hamlet was the home of Elias Hicks, after his mar- 
riage in 1 77 1 to Jemima Seaman. But this zealous 
propagandist, a man of great natural ability, had but 
brief and interrupted domestic life. He travelled 
on foot over ten thousand miles, preaching con- 
stantly, and writing much on all philanthropic meas- 
ures, especially denouncing the evils of war and of 
negro slavery. 

At the beginning of the eighteenth century, Long 
Island had a large trade with the West Indies. A 
tax of ten per cent, was laid on all imports, greatly 

buried on his plantation. His stone bears an epitaph written by 
himself : 

" From distant lands to this wild waste he came, 
This spot he chose and here he fixed his name. 
Long may his sons this peaceful spot enjoy 
And no ill fate their offspring e'er annoy." 
' Now Syosset. Syosset was the name of the Indian town on the 
site of Oyster Bay Village. 



- JAMAICA. 197 

to the indignation of the people. Their remonstrance 
resulted in a compromise by which Oyster Bay 
offered to pay ^25 sterling as its share of the excise 
duty. Smuggling had long been carried on to such 
an extent, that as the practice of honest men it had 
become almost legitimatised. The many harbours 
and inlets of the Long Island shore gave excellent 
facilities for contraband trade. Custom-houses were 
established at Setauket and at Oyster Bay, but, in 
1699, it was estimated that one third of all the goods 
imported by New York were " run into Southold, 
Setauket, Oyster Bay and Musquito Cove." Some 
years eai-Iier, Dongan had written to England, that 
" Unless Connecticut be annexed, it will be impossi- 
ble to make anything of his Majesty's Customs on 
Long Island, since they carry away without enter- 
ing, all our oils which is the greatest part of what 
we have to make returns of from this place." 

Hempstead grew apace, and the Great Plains did 
not give sufHcient scope for the activities of its set- 
tlers. In 1656, Robert Jackson and others who 
" wished a place to improve their labours," applied 
to the Director-General and Council ' for permission 
to begin a new plantation half-way between Hemp- 
stead and Canarsie. The grant was given March 21, 

' Robert Jackson, Daniel Denton, and others petition the Council 
the third time for " a place to improve our labours upon, for some of 
us are destitute of either habitation or possession ; others though 
Inhabitants finde they cannot comfortably subsiste by their Labours 
and Indeavours. By which means they are Necessitated to Looke 
out for a place where they may hope with God's blessing upon theyr 
Labours more comfortably to Subsist. — Nezo York Colonial Docu- 
ments, vol. xiv., p. 339. 



1 98 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

165^, and the settlement was known as "ye new 
Plantation near ye bever pond, commonly called 
Jemaco.' Stuyvesant's Patent was given under the 
name of Rustdorp, and the pleasant bouweries upon 
its borders were long the favourite country-seats of 
the well-to-do Hollanders. 

At the first Town Meeting Daniel Denton '^ was 
chosen clerk, " to write and enter all acts of public 
concernment to ye towne, and to have a daies work 
ofT a man for ye saide emploiment." The Town 
Books are full of the same curious entries as in 
Hempstead. In the deed from the Rockaway 
Indians, " one thing is to be remembered that 
noe person is to cut down any tall trees whereon 
Eagles ' doe build their nests." It is ordered in 
Town IMeeting, that " whosoever shall fell a tree 
on ye Highway shall take boughs and bodie off ye 
Highway." 

On February 21, 1657, it is "At Town Meeting 
voted and concluded that the Littel Playnes shall 
be layed out and proportioned to every man accord- 
ing to his medow, as other denizons of land, and 
that the town are to be divided into squadrons, 
every squadron taking their part . . . and the 

' Its name long recalled the once numerous beavers. As late as 
1742, it was voted at Town Meeting that the " Bever Pond shall not 
be darned or stoped above the natural course." 

' Daniel Denton was re-elected yearly until 1664. In 1665, he 
bought lands at Elizabethtown, New Jersey, and led the colony of 
Hempstead men who founded Newark. Thus early began the 
swanning from the mother-hive. 

'* Perhaps fish-hawks are meant, which on the New Jersey coast 
are still protected as scavengers. 



THE JAMAICA TOWN BOOKS. 1 99 

surveyours are to liave one peny an acor for their 
laying out this land according to order.' (I., 88.) 

"At a Town Meeting held at Jamaica the 22nd 
Sept. anno 1686, the Town doe make choise of 
William Crede' to goe to Huntington there to 
meete ye reste of ye deputies that shall meete 
there from ye other towns, to agetate with them, and 
allsoe to determine conserning what they all shall 
unanimously agree upon, conserning ye grievances 
or privileges of ye County." (I. 52.) "Agitation" 
was, even thus early, an approved method of reform. 

To secure the abode among them of the most 
useful of artisans, was a matter of public concern. 
In 1691, it was "voted and agreed at Town Meet- 
ing, that John Freeman, Smith, shall have for his 
encouragement to come and live amongst us and to 
followe his trade, ten acres of land where he can 
finde it, as near the towne as may be moste for his 
convenience, provided it doeth not belong to any 
particular person, and also give free liberty to the 
said Freeman to keepe what cattle he shall have to 
goe upon the Common, and also get what timber 
he .shall have occasion for to fens his land, or for 
buildeings." (II. 64.) 

When Long Island was divided into counties, 
Jamaica became the shire-town of Queens, a posi- 
tion it had already held in the North Riding." Its 

' This arrangement was confirmed in 1659, when the people were 
" to mow in stjuadrons, to wit, John Townsend and his sfjuafiron at 
the East Neck ; Natlianiel Denton and his squadron at the Haw- 
trees," and so on. 

* Of the family from which Creedmoor takes its name. 

* January i, 166!;, an ordinance was passed at fTorte James, to 



200 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

" Booke of Enterys" dates from 1683; the probate 
record in the Surrogate's Oflfice from 1687. The 
County Hall was built in 1687, and made over to 
Richard Cornwall on condition that he keep it in 
repair for twenty-one years. In 1708, it was rebuilt 
and used until the erection of the Court House on 
Hempstead Plains eighty years later. 

In this " Booke of Enterys for Queen's County on 
Long Island," a time-stained folio, bound in white 
vellum, written in the careful, crabbed chirography 
which was the pride of the skilled clerks of an earlier 
time, is a record which brings up an historic tableau 
of vivid contrasts : 

"At the Court of Kensington, the nth day of 
April, 1706, Present, the Queen's most excell^ ma^y, 
His Royal Highness, Prince George of Denmark, 

" The Lord Keeper, 

"The Lord Treasurer, 

"The Lord President, 

" The Duke of Ormond, 

"The Earl of Bradford, 

" The Earl of Ranelagh, 

" Lord Dartmouth, 

" Lord Coningsby, 

" Mr. Secy Hedges, 

" Mr. Seer Hartly, 

" The Lord Cheife Justice Trevor, 

" Mr. Vernon, 

" Mr. Howe, 

" Mr. Erie. 

raise ;.^ioo, it having been agreed that "ye Sessions House and 
Prison for ye Riding shall be built in the Town of Jamaica." 



IN COUNCIL A T THE COURT OF KENSINGTON. 20I 

" Whereas by Commission under the Great Scale 
of England, the Governor, Council and Assembly of 
the Province of New York in America have been 
authorised and impowered jointly and severally, to 
make, constitute and ordain Laws, Statutes and or- 
dinances which are to be as near as conveniently 
may be, agreeable to the Laws and Statutes of this 
Kingdom, and to be transmitted to her MaT for 
her Royall approbation, or Disallowance of them, 
and whereas in pursuance of the said powers a Law 
past in the Genl' Assembly has transmitted the fol- 
lowing to enable William Bradford, Printer, of New 
York, to sell and dispose of the estate of John 
Dewsbury, late of Oyster Bay," etc., etc. 

The phlegmatic Queen Anne — where no positive 
traits of character exist, it is easy to win the epithet 
of "good," her yet more stolid husband, the dozen 
gowned and periwigged Lords of the Council, 
assembled in the Cabinet Meeting held at Kensing- 
ton, every Sunday, all the pomp and circumstance of 
monarchy, brought to bear upon the transfer of a 
few acres of land on this distant island — is not this a 
striking antithesis? 

Jamaica was settled by Independents, but they 
did not bring with them the grace of charity, nor 
were they disposed to allow to those of other beliefs 
the liberty which they claimed for themselves. Their 
spirit is instanced by the following, one of many 
similar records in the Town Books: 

"We whose names are underwritten doe by these 
presents promise and engage that iff any meeting or 
Conventicle off the Quakers shall bee in this town 



202 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

of Rusdorp, wee will give information to ye augh- 
tority set in this place by ye Governor and allsoe 
assist ye aughtority of the Town against all such 
persons called Quakers, as need shall require. 

" With this we set our hands this 1 1 February 
1661. 

" Thos. Wiggins, Sam Matthews, 

" Na. Denton, Ben Coe, 

"And. Messenger, M. Foster, 

"Abra. Smith, Geo. Mills." 

The Town Books never use the denominational 
name, Independent, or Congregational, or Presby- 
terian, and the exact tenets of the first churches in 
both Hempstead and Jamaica are not known. It 
has been with reason supposed that as coming from 
New England the people were Independents, and 
congregational in their ecclesiastical polity, while 
the Presbyterians claim them, because the Reverend 
Richard Denton was sometimes so called, and the 
church at Hempstead in its earliest register is styled 
" Christ's First Presbyterian Church," a name, how- 
ever, it is to be observed, which was not used by the 
Stamford settlers. The " society " in Jamaica may 
have been soon turned to Presbyterianism, for the 
Reverend George MacNish, a charter member of the 
first Presbytery in America, was long resident there 
and active in their affairs, civil and religious, — "a 
tower of strength about which the Puritans rallied." 
The secular business of the Church was long 
ordered by the Town Meeting. The Town was 
the congregation. Its records preserve all that is 
known of the early organisation. In April, 1662, 



THE FIRST MEETING-HOUSE. 203 

the Town decrees that "a house bee built for the 
ministre, the rate to be levied on the medowes' and 
house-lotts." A year later, August 30, 1663, it is 
ordered that a Meeting-house be built twenty-six 
feet by twenty-six. Men were appointed to be 
" Collectors of all rates for the Ministers "" and all 
other Town Charges," and the calling of a candidate 
for their pulpit was thus ordered : 

"At the Town Meeting called April ye 3rd 1688, 
the Town ^ hath agreed with John Heins for a piece 
of eight * to give the town a visset in order to settling 
amongst us, and the Town doe appoint ye Clark to 
write a letter to ye said ministre and to give him an 
invitation to come amongst us to dispense ye word 
off God in behalf off ye Town." 

The building of the second church was decreed, 
December 6, 1689. There was a Town Meeting 
called at which it was " then and there voted there 
should be a Meeting-House built in this town of 
Jamaica 60 feet long 30 feet wide & every way else 
as shall be comely and convenient for a Meeting- 
House." This house was finished in about three 
years, and remained standing until 1813. 

' "That being the most equal way, because every man's right and 
proportion in the township did arise from the quantity of medowe 
land he did possess." 

^ This method was not always successful. Governor Dongan com- 
plains in his Report of 1687 that " As for the King's natural-born 
subjects who live on Long Island and other parts of the Government, 
I find it very hard to make them pay their ministers." 

^ Note the expression, " The Town hath agreed" ; no indication 
of individual votes, all is merged in the common action of the 
Gemot. 

■* A piece of eight was a silver coin of the value of eight shillings. 



204 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

In February, 1663, a call had been given to the 
Reverend Mr. Walker, who was there for a few 
years. In 1670, Mr. Prudden came and, with an 
interval of two years, 1675-6, filled by William 
Woodrop (Woodruff), was the preacher until 1692. 
A call was then given to Jeremiah Hobart, who had 
been for ten years in Hempstead, but he did not 
come to Jamaica until some years later, and then 
only for a brief period. The time was filled in part 
by one George Phillips. From 1702-5 was the 
pastorate of the devout young minister, John Hub. 
bard, who died in office and lies in an unmarked 
grave in the village Burying-ground.' 

Among the most loved of the early Presbyterian 
pastors of Jamaica, was the Reverend Walter Wil- 
mot, who died in 1744, but shortly after his beauti- 
ful young wife, P'reelove Townsend. This young 
woman, dying, a wife and mother at twenty-three, 
seems to have been one of those ethereal characters 
which bloom at rare intervals in an environment 
however austere. She was of the Saint Theresa 
type of spirit, and her diary and remaining letters 
preserve meditations esteemed most edifying. 

Matthias Burnett, D.D., was the pastor from 1775 
to 1785. His steadfast loyalty preserved the church 
from desecration during the military occupation of 
Jamaica, but at the close of the war he was one of 
the expatriated. 

' In the newly established Boston Ne7vs Letter of October 22, 
1705, is the following : 

"Jamaica Long Island, October the nth. On Fryday the 5th 
current, dyed here the Reverend Mr. John Hubbard, minister of a 
church in this Place, aged 28 years, 9 months, lacking 4 days," 



QUEEN ANNE'S GIFT. 20$ 

The Presbyterian Meeting-house, used also for 
sessions of the County Court, was not built until 
the year 1700. It is the oldest existing edifice of 
the name in America. 

In 1689, it was ordered at the Town Meeting that 
a church (first use of the word) be built. The riext 
year " the Stone Church," a quadrangular structure 
with belfry, and rounded arches over the windows 
and doors, was finished and used by the Church of 
England from 1702 to 1728. 

The English Society for the Propagation of the 
Gospel \\\ Foreign Parts was incorporated in 1701. 
It immediately appointed the Rev. Patrick Gordon, 
sometime chaplain in the Royal Navy, as Missionary 
at Jamaica, under title of the Rector of Queens 
County. Mr. Gordon reached Long Island in June, 
1702, but died almost within a month, "to the grief 
of all good men." He was buried beneath the altar 
in the Stone Church. Until the coming of another 
clergyman, Mr. Vesey, then Rector of Trinity in the 
Parish of New York, held occasional services. In 
1704, James Honeyman, named as Rector of Ja- 
maica, but never inducted, writes to the Society of 
the lack of proper ecclesiastical furnishings: "We 
have a church in this town, but it is so far from 
ornamental that we have not those necessarys that 
are necessary to the daily discharge of our office, 
namely, no Bible nor Prayer-Book, no cloaths 
neither for the pulpit nor altar." These wants were 
supplied the next year by the gift of Queen Anne 
to the churches of Jamaica, Hempstead, West- 
chester, Rye, and Staten Island, of a large Bible and 



206 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

Prayer-book, a pulpit frontal, and a communion 
table, a silver chalice and paten. 

Mr. Honeyman continues, "To this parish belong 
two other towns, Newtown and Flushing, famous 
for being stocked with Quakers, whither I intend to 
go upon their Meeting-Days on purpose to preach 
Lectures against their errours." About this time, 
Colonel Morris, with judicious recognition of the 
needs of a people so diverse in race, in traditions, 
and in present beliefs, writes the S. P. G. : "We 
want missionaries, not young but pious, whose grav- 
ity as well as argument shall persuade. This is a 
country in which a very nice conduct is necessary, 
and requires men of years and experience to man- 
age." 

The fall of 1702 was the time of the " Great Sick- 
ness " in New York, an epidemic of yellow fever 
brought from St. Thomas. The Assembly of the 
Province removed its session to Jamaica until No- 
vember 4th, and Lord Cornbury established himself 
and his pseudo-court in the Presbyterian parsonage. 
When the new rector, the Reverend William Ur- 
quhart, came, two years later, the Governor ordered 
the Presbyterian minister, Mr. Hubbard, to give up 
both manse and glebe to Mr. Urquhart. This dis- 
possession was the occasion of long continued 
contention. Memorials from the people to the 
Governor, addresses to the Bishop of London, a 
final appeal to the Queen ; disputes for the occu- 
pancy of the building, " shameful disturbance, 
hawling and tugging of seats "• in the attempt to re- 
move the clergyman who was conducting service, 



DISP UTES VER PRE SB YTERIAN PROPER T V. 20/ 

were among the fruits of Lord Cornbury's arbitrary 
and ill-considered action. He then forbade Mr. 
Hubbard " evermore to preach in the church, for in 
regard that it was built by a publick tax, it did 
apertain to the established church." Feeling ran 
high, but the Episcopal party kept possession of the 
parsonage, and much of the time of the Meeting- 
house,' until ejected by process of law in 1727. 

Mr. Urquhart^ was inducted by Mr. Vesey, July 
27, 1704. Supported in part by the subscriptions of 
the Yorkshire clergy, the S. P. G. gave him fifty 
pounds a year, and fifteen pounds to buy books for 
his mission. He remained in Jamaica until his 
death five years later, and was followed by the 
Reverend Thomas Poyer, whose incumbency was 
from 1710 to 1732. 

Mr. Poyer was from Wales and was the grandson 
of that Colonel Poyer who so gallantly defended 
Pembroke Castle in the days of Cromwell. After a 
three months' voyage he was shipwrecked as he 
neared America and cast on the shore of Long 
Island, a hundred miles to the eastward of his 

* In 1709, when Gerardus Beeckman, as President of the Council 
was Acting-Governor of the province, the Presbyterians got posses- 
sion of the Meeting-house, and Governor Hunter, on his arrival 
resisted the appeals of the church people to eject the occupants. 

^ Colonel Heathcote wrote to the S. P. G, that Mr. Urquhart 
"has the most difficult task of any missionary in this Government, 
for although he has not only the Character of a good man, but of 
being very extraordinarily industrious in the discharge of his duty, 
yet he having a Presbyterian Meeting House on one hand and the 
Quakers on the other, and very little assistance in his Parish except 
from those who have no interest with the People, so that his work 
cant but go very heavily, as I understand it does." 



208 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

parish. Nor, when after a toilsome journey he 
reached Jamaica, did he find rest of body or repose 
of mind. A clause in the "Act of Assembly"' for 
the " Settling of the Ministry in the Province," em- 
powered the people to choose their minister. They 
had acted thereon ; a dissenting preacher had been 
called,^ and they claimed for him the parish dues. 
The rector of Hempstead wrote to the S. P. G. of 
the state of affairs in Jamaica, and of his fears lest 
the " vacancies in most parishes be filled with dis- 
senters, and Dissension set triumphant on the throne 
supported by the laws of the Government. . . . 
But if these people are once more nipped in the 
bud and Mr. Poyer restored to his right, I presume 
they will scarce offer to flutter again as long as there 
is a Crowned head that sways the Sceptre of Great 
Britain." 

On the other hand. Cotton Mather writes to a 
friend in England from the Dissenters' point of 
view. He concludes by saying, " The good people 
there do adorn the doctrine of God, their Saviour by 
a most laudable silence and wonderful patience under 
these things, but if such things proceed, that noble 
Society for the Propagation of Religion in America 
will greatly wound Religion and their own Reputa- 
tion also, which ought to be forever venerable." 

' Introduced by Governor Fletcher in 1693 ; the Province was 
divided into ecclesiastical districts which were yearly to elect two 
wardens and ten vestrymen (often dissenters), who were to call a 
clergyman and to lay a tax for his support. This legislation was 
meant to establish the Church of England, but it was not so carried 
into effect. 

* George MacNish, previously mentioned. 



GRACE church: 2O9 

Finally, in 171 1, the clergy of the colonies of New 
York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania address to the 
Bishop of London, a Memorial ' which is meant to be 
a fair summing up of the questions at issue. 

Through all these troubles Mr. Foyer kept dili- 
gently at work, and " strained himself in travelling 
through the Parish beyond his strength, and not 
seldom to the prejudice of his Health, which is 
Notorious to all the Inhabitants for almost seven 
years past, in all of which time, he has not received 
one farthing of his Sallary allowed him by the Laws 
of this Province." His was indeed a life of great 
hardship and deprivation, shown with simple pathos 
in his letters to the S. P. G. 

He began a careful register of baptisms, marriages, 
and burials, a book whose tattered, time-yellowed 
pages still exist. The titles of some of his sermons 
are suggestive, and link our quiet Island with the 
stirring story of the mother-country. In June, 1716, 
there is " A Thanksgiving for the Overthrow of the 
Enemies of Church and State in North Britain." 
On a January thirtieth, the " Martyrdom of King 
Charles" is commemorated, and on the fifth of 
November he celebrates a " Thanksgiving for the 
Failure of the Gunpowder Plot." 

After Mr. Poyer's death, came the Reverend 

Thomas Colgan, a young man who had married 

Mary Reade, the daughter of Mrs. Vesey. He was 

rector from 1733 to 1755. Grace Church was then 

building, and was consecrated April 5, 1734. Mr. 

Colgan then preached from Genesis xxviii. 16 — 

' See Docutneniary History of New York, vol. iii., pp. 224-33. 
14 



210 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

" Surely the Lord is in this place." Bradford's Neiv 
York Gazette says of the occasion : "His Excellency, 
Gov. Cosby, his lady and whole family were pleased 
to honour the meeting with their presence. The 
Militia were under arms to attend his Excellency 
and so great a concourse of people met that the 
Church was not near able to contain the number. 
After the sermon, his Excellency and family, several 
ladies and gentlemen and the clergy were splendidly 
entertained at the house of Mr. Samuel Clowes, a 
tavern in the same town by the members of the said 
Church." 

During his early pastorate, Mr. Colgan writes in 
many letters of the state of the church: — "The 
Church is thought to be one of the handsomest in 
North America. . . . We want a bell.' . . . Our 
Church is flourishing. We are at peace with the 
sectaries round us. I shall be of a loving and charit- 
able demeanour to every persuasion." This Christian 
purpose met its natural reward. A year later he is 
able to write that " the independents who formerly 
thought it a crime to join with us in worship now 
freely, and with seeming sanctity and satisfaction 
come to our Church when there is no service in 
their Meeting-House." Zealous in scattering ortho- 
dox reading'' and in winning dissenters, he writes in 

' November lo, 1747, the New York Post-Boy announces the 
drawing of the Jamaica lottery to purchase a bell for Grace Church. 

■^ In 1770, Mr, Colgan writes to the S. P. G. : " Some itinerant 
enthusiastical teachers have of late been preaching upon this Island, 
the notorious Mr. Whitllcld lieing at the head of them, and among 
other pernicious tenets iiave broached such false and erronious 
opinions regarding the doctrine of Regeneration, that I beg the 



PARSON BLOOMER. 211 

1743 that he had baptised seventeen persons from 
three famih'es "tainted with Anabaptism and Quak- 
erism," and soon after rejoices that "an entire family 
of good repute had conformed from Independency 
to our Church." 

Mr. Colgan was followed by Samuel Seabury, of 
Hempstead, later the first Bishop of Connecticut. 
Mr. Seabury came to Jamaica from New Brunswick, 
where he had first preached. His residence of 
eleven years was marked by deep discouragement 
and by alarm over the progress of " Infidelity and 
Quakerism." In 1764, he writes of Mr. Whitfield's 
second visit : " I feel it has done a great deal of 
harm. His Tenets and methods of preaching have 
been adopted by a great many of the Dissenting 
teachers and this Town has had an almost daily suc- 
cession of Shouting Preachers and Exhorters, and 
the poor Church of England is on every occasion 
represented as Popish." He then makes a strong 
appeal for the ordination of Colonial bishops, with- 
out whom he believes " the Church cannot flourish 
in America, and unless the Church be well-supported 
and prevail, this whole continent will be overrun 
with Infidelity and deism, Methodism' and New 
Light with every species and degree of Scepticism 
and Enthusiasm." 

The Reverend Joshua Bloomer, who was one of 
that first class of four graduated by King's College in 

Society to bestow upon the people of this Parish, a few of Dr. 
Waterland's pieces upon that subject and of his Lordship the Bishop 
of London's Pastoral Letters upon lukewarmness and enthusiasm." 

' Captain Webb, one of Wesley's most ardent converts, had come 
to Jamaica. 



212 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

1758, had been a captain in the Provincial forces at 
the taking of Quebec. Later, he was a merchant 
in New York, and after going to England to study- 
Theology, became the rector of Jamaica, where he 
served from 1769 to 1790. He experienced the same 
difificulty as Mr. Poyer in drawing his salary, which 
was given by the Town to the dissenting preacher, 
and being of somewhat contentious spirit, he insti- 
tuted several lawsuits for its recovery. But that 
this was not regarded altogether as a personal matter 
is evident from a letter of Cadwallader Golden to 
Governor Tryon in 1774: " In the case between Par- 
son Bloomer and the Ghurch-wardens of Jamaica, Mr. 
Scott for the wardens, appealed from the decree which 
your Excellency gave the day before you embarked. 
As I apprehend, the contention is not so much for 
the value in suit as for the superiority of Ghurch or 
Presbyterianism. I imagine the appeal will be carried 
on in a manner that will cost the courts very high." 

The old Grace Church stood until 1822, when it 
was replaced by the " New Grace Church," burned 
in 1 861. The present beautiful memorial structure of 
brown stone was built in 1863. 

A Dutch Church was probably organised in 
Jamaica before the close of the seventeenth century, 
as there is record of a baptism June I, 1702, but for 
many years it had no local habitation nor name. 
In 171 5, Articles of Agreement were made by the 
" Nether Dutch Congregation of Queens County in 
the Island of Nassau, the Consistory of New Ja- 
maica," and steps were taken toward putting up a 
church. This first house, built in 17 16 and standing 



THE OLD BURYING-GROUND. 213 

for nearly a hundred years, was an octagonal struc- 
ture, in front of which was a stately row of Lom- 
bardy poplars. Its fine bell was cast in Amsterdam, 
and many a silver guilder gave sweetness to its tone. 
Within the church were fourteen long benches for 
the men, and thirteen for the women. The front 
seat, " 'T Heere Bank," was reserved for the magis- 
trates. The Doophuysje was near the altar; the 
scant alms were collected in the silken " sacje " not 
yet entirely out of use. Service was held in the 
Dutch language until 1792, and then, for many years, 
on alternate weeks in Dutch and in English. From 
the church at Jamaica came the church at Success 
Pond, built in 173 1, when Maartcn Wiltse sold to 
Adraien Onderdonk and Cornelis Ryersen one-half 
acre for a building lot. Other churches were founded 
in 1732 at Wolver Hollow, and in 1735 at Newtown. 
In the old church-yard of Grace Church, and in 
the still earlier Town Burying-ground (now included 
in Prospect Cemetery), are many curious epitaphs and 
quaint specimens of mortuary sculpture. There still 
remain a few ** field-stones," roughly rectangular 
slabs of granitic gneiss, glacier-scarred, and faintly 
cut with name and date, which belong to the first 
epoch of settlement. Later, come the tough gray 
slate, and the flaking red sandstone, carved with 
grotesque symbols, equalled only in the illustrations 
to some early edition of Quarles's Emblems. A skull 
and crossbones, an hourglass, or blinking cherubim 
with formal, fantastic arrangement of curls and pin- 
ions, stiff as in an Assyrian sculpture, are among the 
most frequent devices. 



214 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

Some curious epitaphs are there. One, in mild 

eupheism, is, " In memory of who resigned 

her breath." Another is as follows : 

" Here lies Interd y<= body 

Of wife of 

Merch'- She 

Departed this life y^ 13th 
January 1767 Aged 26 years 
Oh Cruel death Why was' thou 
So Severe to Rob me of a tender 
Wife so dear." 

There are some memorials to esteemed officers of 
the British Army stationed there during the Revo- 
lution. Sometimes one sees a stranger's grave bear- 
ing a name to whose possible story there is no clue, 
as that of 

" Paulus Monetyn Ujtondaele 

Baron de Bretien 

March 27. 1796 

Aged 43." 

But the best comment on all lament or panegyric, 
is the brief inscription on the simple sarcophagus of 
James de Peyster, who died in 1802: 

" On tombs enconiums are but vainly spent 
A virtuous life is the best monument." ' 

' Throughout the old grave-yards of Long Island are many odd 
inscriptions. In the Hempstead village-ground is an epitaph to an 
infant three days old : 

" Happy the babe who privileged by fate 
To shorter labour and a lighter weight 
Received but yesterday the gift of breath 
Ordered to morrow to return to death." 



SOCIAL CONDITIONS. 



215 



Throughout the Dutch and the English adminis- 
trations the village of Jamaica continued to be what 
it still is, — a genuine Rustdorp. It attracted from 
New York many who sought a quiet country home, 
yet not a sylvan solitude. Hence it had always an 
intelligent society in touch with the best spirit of the 
times, and quickly responsive to every public event. 

In the Sag Harbour Presbyterian Grave-yard are the stones in 
memory of Captain David Hand and his five wives : 
" Behold ye living mortals passing by 

Howr thick the partners of one husband lie. 
Vast and unsearchable are the vs^ays of God 
Just but severe is his chastening rod." 

At Orient is the following : 

" Here lyes Elisabeth one Samuel Beebee's wife 

Who once was made a living soul but 's now deprived of life 
Yet firmly did believe that at her Lord's return, 
She should be made a living Soul in her own shape and form. 
Lived 4 & 30 years a wife, was Aged 57." 




X. 



LION GARDINER. 



ON a sunny knoll in the old burial-ground of 
Easthampton, amid blue-eyed grass and cin- 
quefoil, rises the granite tomb * of the first 
English planter within the limits of the present 
State of New York. On the slab beneath the roof 
whose pediments bear the escutcheon of his family, 
lies in helmet, cuirass, and greaves, the efifigy of Lion 
Gardiner. On the plinth is inscribed, on the four 
sides, a brief summary of his life : 

" An officer of ye English army and an Enginery 
of ye Master of Workes Fortification of ye Leaguers 
of ye Prince of Orange in ye Low Countries. In 
1635 he came to New England. 

" In service of a Company of Lords and Gentle- 
men He build'd and command'd Say Brook Forte. 

" After completed his terme of service he moved in 
1639 to his Island of which he was sole owner. Born 
in 1599, he died in this towne in 1663. 

^ Erected by two of his descendants in iS86, after a design by 
James Renwick. The grave was originally marked by cedar posts 
and bars. When opened, the skeleton was found in perfect preserva- 
tion, indicating a man of six feet, two inches in height. 

216 



THE FOR T AT SA Y BROOK. 2 1 7 

" Venerated and honoured and under many trying 
circumstances in peace and war, brave discrete and 
true." 

After valiant service with Fairfax in the Nether- 
lands, Lion Gardiner with his wife, Mary Willemsen 
of Werden, came to America. Let him tell his own 
story : " In the year 1635, I, Lion Gardiner, English- 
man and Master of Workes of Fortification of the 
Leagues of the Prince of Orange in the Low Coun- 
tries through the persuasion of Mr, John Davenport, 
Mr. Hugh Peters with some other well-affected Eng- 
lishmen of Rotterdam, I made an agreement with 
the fore-named Mr. Peters for 100 lbs per annum for 
four years to serve the Company of Patentees." 

John Winthrop writes of Gardiner's coming, in his 
Journal, November 10, 1635 : " Here arrived a small 
Norsey bark of 25 tons sent by the Lord Say etc. 
with one Gardiner, an expert engineer and work- 
baas, & provision of all sorts to begin a Fort at 
the mouth of the Connecticut. She came through 
many great tempests yet through the Lord's great 
providence, the passengers, 12 men, 2 women & goods 
are all safe. Mr. Winthrop had sent four days be- 
fore, a bark with carpenters and other workmen to 
take possession of the place (for the Dutch intended 
to take it) and to raise some buildings." ' 

Arriving in Boston early in November, he stayed 
there long enough to complete the works begun by 
Winthrop on Fort Hill, the first fortification on the 
Tri-Mountain. The townsmen were detailed for 
fourteen days' work thereon, and he was not long 
' See History of New England, vol. i,, p.. 208. 



2l8 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

detained from the execution of his orders from Lord 
Say and Sele, and Lord Brooke.' 

Three hundred able-bodied and skilled men were 
promised Gardiner. When he reached the mouth 
of the Connecticut, November 28, 1635, he found 
there only twenty men, chiefly carpenters sent by 
Winthrop. A few more came in the spring, but in 
numbers insuf^cient to hold the post. He was 
" greatly galled by the hot haste of Fenwick, Old- 
ham and Hugh Peters who came to the Fort to 
bring on the Pequot War." When the outbreak 
came, and a force under John Underbill was sent 
from Boston, he declared " You have come to raise 
these wasps about my ears and then you will take 
wing and fly away again." He felt himself deserted 
by the company, to whom he writes : " You will 
keep yourselves safe in the Bay, but myself with 
these few you will leave at the stake, or for hunger 
to be starved." He added : " No foreign potent 
enemy would do them any hurt, but one that was 
near. Captain Hunger." Urging the planting of the 
country, he besought them to defer the war, to " let 
fortifications alone and fight against Hunger," say- 
ing : " War is a three-footed stool ; want one foot 
and down comes all, and these three are men, victu- 
als and munitions." 

In his old age, in the quiet of Easthampton, Lion 

' This was the first attempt at English settlement within the patent 
granted to the Earl of Warwick in 1630, for the " Colony of Con- 
necticut," in a region, by right of discovery indisputably belonging 
to the Dutch, and where Hans den Sluys had already bought land of 
the Indians and at " Kievit Hoeck " (Peewit Point) had affixed to a 
great oak the Arms of Holland. 



TREATY WITH WYANDANCH. 219 

Gardiner wrote : " A Relation of the Pequot Warres " 
which, as it did " prick some men's fingers," was not 
then made public. " Having rummaged and found 
some old papers then written," the accuracy of the 
narrative was assured. His apology for its style, 
addressed to his " loving friends," Robert Chapman 
and Thomas Hurlburt, at whose instance it was 
written, is delightful in its piquant simplicity. 

" You know that when I came to you, I was an 
Engineer or Architect, whereof carpentry is a little 
part, but you know I never could use all tools, for 
although for my necessity I was forced sometimes 
to use my shifting chisel and my holdfast, you know 
I never could endure or abide the smoothing plane : 
I have sent you a piece of timber scored and fore- 
hewed, unfit to join to any handsome piece of work, 
but seeing I have done the hardest work, you must 
get somebody to chip it and to smoothe it lest the 
splinters should pricks some men's fingers, for the 
truth must not be spoken at all times, though to my 
knowledge I have written nothing but truth, and 
you may take out or put in what you please, or, if 
you will, you may throw it into the fire." 

The day after the English victory on the Mystic, 
Wyandanch, " next brother to the old Sachem of 
Long Island," came to Gardiner to ask if he were 
" angry with all the Indians," and offered as an 
earnest of peace to pay the English the same tribute 
as had been given to the Pequots. Then began a 
close association and sincere friendship between 
Lion Gardiner and the Montauketts. The tribe 
were in continual war with the Narragansetts, and 



220 EARLY LOXG ISLAND, 

were ver}- willing to aid the English against them. 
When IMiantonomah. chief of the Narragansetts, 
tried to draw the Montauketts into plots against 
the English, they repeatedly disclosed to their new 
friends the plans of their hereditary enemies. Gar- 
diner's influence over the Long Island Indians lasted 
through his life and was retained by his sons. Wy- 
andanch at his death made him the guardian of his 
heir, the young Weoncombone, and during the 
regency of his mother, the Sachem-squa, her acts 
were valid only as confirmed by Gardiner. 

Not long after the close of the Pequot war, Lion 
Gardiner bought from Wyandanch, for a large black 
dog, a gun, some powder and shot, and a few Dutch 
blankets, the island Monchonock, which has since 
borne his own name. It embraced thirty-five hun- 
dred acres of hill and dale, rising in the north to the 
sheer cliffs which descend abruptly to the ocean, 
sloping to the southwestward to beautiful glades 
opening vistas through stately primeval forests of 
wide-spreading oaks. Gardiner called the estate the 
Isle of Wight and moved thither in 1639.' 

His purchase by the Indians was confirmed by 
Farret, and in 16S3 his sons received the last patent 
erecting the " Lordship and Manor of Gardiner's 
Island." Provision was made for a Court Baron and 
a Court Leet and for the advowson of churches 
that might be built. Although soon after nominally 
joined to the township of Easthampton, the island 
was held through eight generations of unbroken 

' His daughter Elizabeth, born there September 14, 1641, was the 
first English child born in Nieuw Xederlandt. 



SUFFOLK COUNTY. 221 

descent as an entailed and independent barony until 
its final annexation to the State by a legislative act 
March 7, 1788. 

Lion Gardiner was, with the Reverend Thomas 
James, one of the chief proprietors of Easthampton, 
whither he went in 1653 to spend the last ten years 
of his life. Very quietly they passed, " rummaging 
old papers " and reviewing his exceptionally active 
and varied career. One would gladly know what 
were the " 2 greate Bookes " and the " Several 
bookes " noted in the inventory of his estate.' One 
English folio there already was, that might give him 
rare companionship. 

The English based their claims to Long Island, 
and particularly to Suffolk County, two-thirds its 
territory, on the royal grant to Lord Sterling. As 
already said, James Farret was his agent " to sell, 
let mortgage or dispose of ye said island as he saw 
fit under advise of the Right Worshipful John 
Winthrop, Esq., Governour of Boston Colony." Lord 
Sterling had never claimed jurisdiction over Long 
Island, only ownership, but after his death, Farret 
attempted to usurp sovereign authority until his 

'2 Great Bookes £,002.0^ Horses 

Several bookes 007 Cattle 

4 great cheirs 000. 1 2 Swine 

15 peeces of pewter 003.05 Clothing 

13 peeces of hollow pewter. . . . 002 bedding 

4 porringers & 4 saucers 000.05 Cooking utensils 

5 pewter spoons 000.03 A cickell 

A stubing how " cheeze-press 

" broad " " churn 

" little " 2 pasty-boards 



122 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

career was arrested in Nieuw Amsterdam — thus, the 
earliest holdings of Suffolk County even if purchased 
from the Indians, were confirmed by deeds from 
Farret. 

The settlement of eastern Long Island was on 
very different lines from the Dutch colonisation of 
the western towns. Until the English Conquest, 
the towns of the later Suffolk County were subject 
to no outside control and were politically inde- 
pendent of one another. The whole power was in 
the primary assemblies of the people, the Town 
Meeting, called the General Court. It was a pure 
democracy adapted to the sparse population and the 
primitive simplicity of the times. By blood, by re- 
ligion, and by political sympathies, the strongest ties 
of the people were with New England.' Long and 
strenuous were the efforts for union with Connecti- 
cut. Even to-day, the philosophical historian of 
that Commonwealth, writes of the " Island which 
Nature confirmed by Law assigned to Connecticut, 
though by the greed of the House of Stuart, su- 
perior to both Nature and Law, transferred to New 
York." Again he says : " The assignment of Long 
Island was regretted but not resisted, and the island 
which is the natural sea-wall of Connecticut passed 
by royal decree to a province whose only natural 
claim to it, was that it touched one corner.'"' 

' Dongan, in his Report of 1687, repeats and emphasises a former 
utterance : " Most of the people of the island, especially towards the 
East, are of the same stamp as those of New England, refractory 
and very loath to have any commerce with this place, to the great 
detmt of his Matys revenue @ ruin of our Merchants." 

^ See Prof. Johnston's Connecticut, pp. 2, 194. 



DIVISION OF SUFFOIK COUNTY. 223 

When by the Act of 1683, Yorkshire was re- 
divided, the East Riding was called Suffolk County. 
It was the county of manorial grants, to the families 
of Gardiner, Nicoll, Smith, and Floyd, but as land 
tenure was by gavel-kind, the immemorial usage of 
Kent, whence many of the settlers came, the dis- 
regard of the rights of primogeniture prevented the 
maintenance of great family estates. 

It was then ordained that " the County of Suffolk 
conteyne the severall towns of Huntington, Smith- 
field, Brookhaven, Southampton, Southold, East- 
hampton to Montauk Point, Shelter Island, the Isle 
of Wight, Fisher's Island and Plumb Island with the 
severall out-farms, settlements and plantagons adja- 
cent." Of the additional townships now existing, 
Islip was established by the colonial government in 
1710; the town of Riverhead was separated from 
Southold as River Head by an Act of Legislature in 
1792, and the southern part of Huntington was set 
off as Babylon in 1872. 




XL 



THE CONNECTICUT TOWNS. 



JUNE 12, 1640, eight Englishmen' on a sloop 
from Lynn, landed on the southern shore of 
Peconic Bay. As told in the story of Hemp- 
stead, they had already attempted a settlement at 
'T Schout's Bale, and it was only on condition of 
going beyond the limits of Dutch occupation that 
they had been released from the imprisonment in 
Fort Amsterdam. 

Farret granted them the land " between Pea- 
coneck and the westernmost part of Long Island 
with the whole breadth from Sea to Sea, ... in 
consideration of barge-hire, and having been driven 
by the Dutch from the place where they were by 
me planted to their grate damage." The under- 
takers of the new plantation settled on the shore 
near where the hamlet of North Sea ^ later grew up, 



' Their names were 

Edmund ffarington 
Thomas Halsey 
Edward Needham 
Daniel Howe 



Job Sayre 
Edwin Howell 
John Cooper 
Henry Walton 



^ About the year 1640, by a fresh supply of the people that settled 

224 



THE REVEREND ABRAHAM PIER SON. 225 

and some, at " the Place where the Indians trayle 
their cannoes out of the North Bay," to the south 
side of the Island. An Indian deed was given, 
December 13, 1640, " in consideration of 16 coats 
already received and alsoe three-score bushells of 
Indian corne to bee payed upon lawfull demand." 

Other families came from Lynn and organised the 
government of the town. " They called one Mr. 
Pierson, a godly learned man and a member of the 
Church of Boston to go with them who with 7 or 8 
more of the Company gathered into a Church body 
at Linne (before they went) and the whole company 
entered into a civil combination (with the advice of 
our magistrates) to become a corporation." * 

Mr. Pierson ^ was from Trinity College, Cam- 
Long Island there was erected a town called Southhampton and 
severed from the Continent of New Haven, they not finding a place 
in any other of the colonies. — Ogilby's Description of America. 
' Winthrop's History of New England, vol. ii., p. 7. 
'^ Cotton Mather thus writes of him in the Magnolia Christi : 
" It is reported of Pliny, and it is perhaps but a Plinyism that there 
is a fish called Lucerna whose tongue doth shine like a torch ; if it be 
a fable yet let the tongue of a minister be the moral of that fable ; 
now, such an illuminating tongue was that of our Pierson. He was 
a Yorkshire man and coming to our New-England he became a 
member of the Church of Boston. The inhabitants of Lyn, straight- 
ened at home, looked out for a new plantation : going to Long- 
Island, they agreed both with Lord Sterling's agent and with the 
Indian proprietours for a situation at the West-end of that Island 
where the Dutch gave them such disturbance that they deserted their 
place for another at the East-end of it. Proceeding in their planta- 
tion by the accession of near one hundred families they called Mr. 
Pierson to go with them. Thus was settled a Church at Southhanip- 
ton under the pastoral charge of this worthy man, where he did with 
laudable diligence undergo two of the three hard labours, 'Docentis 
&" Regentis to make it (what Paradise was called) the island of the 
15 



226 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

bridge. He remained in Southampton but two 
years, going to Branford, as he preferred the polity 
of the New Haven Colony where only Church mem- 
bers were allowed to vote. In 1667, he joined the 
Hempstead Colony at Newark, New Jersey. His 
son Abraham, born in Southampton was the first 
President of Yale College. 

Mr. Pierson set forth in the Town Book "An Ab- 
stract of the Lawes of Judgment as given by Moses 
to the Commonwealth of Israel, soe farre foarth as 
they bee of morall, i. e. of perpetual and universal 
equity. . . . Consented vnto as fTundamentall by 
the Inhabitants of this Collony of Southhampton." 

The code might well have been written in blood. 
It gives seventeen capital crimes; among them, 
" prophaning the Lord's daye in a carelesse or 
scorneful neglect orcontempt thereof." — " Rebellious 
children whether they continue in Riot and Drunk- 
ennesse after due correction from Parents, or whether 
they curse or Spite theer parents Are to be put to 
death." — " Drunkennesse as transforming God's Im- 
age into a Beast, is to be punished with the punish- 
ment of a Beaste. A Whippe for the horse and a 
rodde for the fooles backe." A liar of over fourteen 
years of age, was punished by a fine of five shillings, 
or five hours in the stocks. 

Many of the entries in the Town Books are of 
laws to regulate the austere life of the community. 

innocent.' . . . When the Church was divided, Mr. Pierson 
was directed by the Council, ' unto Branford over upon the main 
and Mr. Fordham came to serve and feed that part of the Flock that 
was left at Southhampton ; but wherever he came, he shone." 



TOWN LAWS. 227 

"February 2nd 1642. Yt is ordered yf any per- 
son what soever shall leave open any common gates 
whereby preiduce shall work to any person, the per- 
son offending shall paye the damage and 12 pence 
to the townes vse, or else be whipped." 

" December 22. 1642. Yt is ordered that every man 
shall clear six feet at the end of His Howse Lott 
both of stumpes, tree-tops, topps and what soever 
shall bee any Annoyance for the passage of Men, 
Women or Children by Night or daye, and this to 
bee done betwixt this and the 20th ffebr vpon ye 
payne of 5 shillings." 

" Nov. 6. 1643. Yt is ordered that who soever 
shall kill and bring ye head of a woolfe vnto eyther 
of ye Magistrates shall have paid vnto him the some 
of 10 shillings." 

" Nov. 8. 1644. lohn Cooper the elder was cen- 
sured by the Generall Court for some passionate 
expressions 5 shillings." 

"July 7, 1645. Yt is ordered that from time to 
time the Meeting-house shall be sweeped vpon ye 
last day of every weeke by each ffamily by turnes 
vpon notice given by those who swept it last." 

"August 2ist, 1650. Yt is ordered that yf the 
miller shall grinde any corne in the mill of an hour 
paste sunset then for the same he shall for every 
such defect pay 10 shillings to be levied on his 
goods and chattels." 

"June 4, 165 1. is sentenced for exorbi- 
tant words of imprication to stand with her tongue 
in a cleft-stick." ' 

* A little later, a woman in Easthampton received the same sen- 



228 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

" 17 June 165 1. It is granted by the Inhabitants 
of this town of Southhampton that Jeremy Veale, 
blacksmith of Salem, shall have the 100 Lott pro- 
vided he doe come and settle here before January 
next, and that to his power he bee in readiness to 
doo all black smithing work that the inhabitants doe 
stand in nead of." 

" March 3, 1653. Yt is ordered that for the pre- 
venting the evil which is subject to fall out by ex- 
cessive drinking of strong drinke that who soever 
shall bee convicted of drunkenness shall for the first 
time pay 10 shillings, for the second 20 shillings, for 
the third 30 shillings." 

" Sept. 22. 1663. Liberty is granted by the towne 
for the making of pittes to catch wolves and the 
said pitts being made competently safe from spoyl- 
ing great cattle-kind, if any such cattle should chance 
to be hurt or spoiled thereby, the cost or damage 
shall be satisfied by ye whole towne." 

In 1659, the Town sent to Connecticut for a copy 
of these Laws from which it selected those adapted 
to its own needs. After the Hempstead Convention 
of 1665, the Duke's Laws obtained. The ofifice of 
Townsman was abolished, and a new tribunal estab- 
lished, — the Court of the Constable and Overseers. 
Among their duties was to " warn people to instruct 
their children and servants in matters of religion and 
lawes of the country." 

Holding to the validity of Lord Sterling's Patent, 
the planters of Southampton paid no heed to the 

tence for saying that her husband " had brought her to a place where 
there was neither gospel nor magistracy." 



INCORPORATION OF SOUTHAMPTON. 229 

Act of 1664, but on Andros's arrival, all lands were 
declared forfeited unless their ownership was con- 
firmed by new patents issued by him. The business 
was delayed until Manning's surrender of Fort 
James to the Dutch in 1673, found it still unsettled. 
Southampton then gladly seized the chance to ap- 
peal to Connecticut to be again received within her 
jurisdiction. But after the final treaty between 
England and Holland, Andros compelled the sub- 
mission of the rebellious town. A patent was 
granted' by him, November i, 1676, and renewed 
by Dongan ten years later. By it the town was de- 
clared a body corporate and politic in deed and 
name, yielding and paying to his Majesty, his heirs, 
and successors, the sum of forty shillings, yearly, on 
Lady- Day. 

The first Meeting-house was built in 1641, a little 
south of the present village church. Three years 
after, the minister, Abraham Pierson and several of 
his parishioners seceded and moved to Branford in 
the New Haven Colony, when Southampton joined 
herself to the Connecticut Colony. That event oc- 
curred March 7, 1644, when it was " voted and con- 
sented vnto by the General Court that the towne of 

' This patent was granted to 

John Topping, J. P. John Jennings 

Captain John Howell Francis Sayre 

Thos. Halsey, Sen. Henry Petersen 

Joseph Rayner, Const. Lieut. Jos. Fordhem 

Edward Howell John Cooper 

John Jagger Elias Cook 

John Foster Samuel Clark 
Richard Post. 



230 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

Southhampton shall enter into combination with the 
Jurisdiction of Connecticut." This connection was 
maintained, and Southampton sent delegates to the 
General Court at Hartford, until 1664. 

Mr. Pierson was followed by Robert Fordham, 
who was engaged on a regularly increasing salary — 
" The well-beloved servant of the Lord, Mr. fford- 
ham, after Appril i, 1649, is to have 3 score pounds, 
and after 1659, 4 score pounds." Meanwhile, the 
town grew apace. A letter written to the younger 
Winthrop, under date of April 4, 1650, says : 
" Southhampton will be too strait for Mr. ffordham's 
friends. Easthampton is full, and Mr. Ogden begins 
a town on ye North side for trading." 

In the engagement of a Schoolmaster by the 
Town Meeting, September 22, 1663, a generous pro- 
vision was thought to be made for his vacation : 
" By ye major vote of the Town, it is ordered that 
lonas Holdsworth shall have £i<^ for his schooleing 
per annum with ye allowance of twelve dayes in the 
yeare liberty for his particular occations." The 
next year, it is " Ordered there shall be a school- 
house 20 foot long and 15 foot wide built at the 
townes charges and finished for use before winter." 

In 1675, an interesting " valuacon " of Southamp- 
ton occurs in a letter addressed to " the wors' his 
ever hon""*^ and much esteemed Cap* Matthias NicoUs, 
Secretary at New Yorke, theise p^'sents — 

" It exactly amounts to twelve thousand, five 
hundred and fourty one pounds, XVI s. VIII. d. 
Wee have diligently accompted every man's estate 
vp, and that is the just totall according to our best 



THE COMMON LAND. 23 1 

inspection : wee herein send you not the per'culars 
for wee conceive that would bee but lost labour to 
vs and noe advantage nor more satisfaction but 
rather a cumber to you." Then followed an obse- 
quious excuse for delay in giving the report, and a 
petition against the over-rating of horses by the old 
law, which they felt to be " hard and oppressive." 
In a postscript is reference to King Philip's war then 
in progress : " Wee are grieved to heare of ye loss of 
English blood by ye cruell damned pagans, and very 
many are sorry the Indians here have their guns 
returned to them." 

Much of the land in Southampton remained in 
common. Throughout the eighteenth century its 
occupation was a fruitful source of trouble with the 
new-comers. Its disposition made up a large part of 
the town business, and during the Revolution under- 
lay much of the enmity between the " Sons of Lib- 
erty " and the fewer loyal townspeople. With the 
common pasturage within their own bounds, South- 
ampton had also rights on Montauk. Thither the 
young cattle were driven in the spring. The day 
for their return in the fall was fixed by special ordi- 
nance of the Town Meeting. Strange that there 
remains no memorial " Ranz des Vaches," but the 
following Thursday was long celebrated as the yearly 
thanksgiving. The people resented the appointment 
of a day by Governor George Clinton, and adhered 
to their own custom until Governor Jay's proclama- 
tion for the celebration of November 11, 1795- 

The Whale Fishery, that prime source of wealth 
in the farther towns, was begun by John Ogden in 



232 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

1660. It gave to eastern Long Island its commer- 
cial importance, and led Andros, in 1678, to write : 
" Our principal places of trade are New York and 
Southhampton.'-'- The disposition of drift-whales was 
early regulated by the General Court : " March 7, 
1644, It is ordered that yf by the providence of God 
there shall be henceforth within the bounds of this 
plantacon any WHALE or WHALES cast vp, ffor the 
prevention of disorder, it is consented that there 
shall be foure wards in this towne. Eleven persons 
in each ward shall be employed for the cutting out 
off the sayde whales, who for theyr paynes shall 
have a double share. And every Inhabitant with 
his child or servant who is above sixteen yeares of 
age shal have in the division of the other part an 
equal proportion. ... It is further ordered that 

Mr. Howell, and Robert Garner shal give 

notice after any storme to two persons, and so from 
tyme to tyme to two other persons, one of whom 
shall goe to viewe and espie if there be any whales 
caste vp as far as the South Harbour, and the other 
shal goe unto the third pond ' beyond Meecocks, 
beginning at the windmills and yf any person whose 
turne yt is who have Information to give upon dis- 
coverie and shal not faithfully performe the same 
shal eyther paj^ 10 shillings, or be whipped." 

In 1659, Wyandanch, Sachem of " Paumanack, or 
Long Island, hath sold unto Lyon Gardiner all the 
bodys and bones of all the whales that come upon 
the shore, only the fins and tayles which wee reserve 
for ourselves and the other Indians." 
' Later, called Georgica. 



THE WHALE FISHERY. 233 

Various agreements are preserved made with the 
Indians who are " To whale for Richard Howell and 
Joseph Fordham for two seasons for a half-share. 
They are to whale at Quaquanantuck ' and to raft the 
blubber to Shinnecock." But when, in 1716, Captain 
Samuel Mulford, of Easthampton, addressed to. the 
King a MemoriaP asserting the rights of Suffolk, 
and exposing the wrongs done to her people, in no 
denunciation of official oppression was he more fierce 
than in his defence of the right of whale fishery : "The 
custom of the Fishing is a free Custom because 
there is not any Law to Prohibit. It is an Antient 
Custom to the Third and Fourth Generation. It is 
more antient than the Colony of New York, and 
not in any man's memory to the Contrary till of 
late." 

But the number of whales in the home waters was 
uncertain and decreasing. Although in 172 1, ** they 
talk of forty whales being taken on Long Island," in 
1722, " but four whales were taken this year." Then 
grew up the great ship-building industry, of which 
Sag Harbour was the centre. Staunch vessels were 
built, manned, and sent to the Pacific and to theArctic, 
and became the source of great wealth to the Eastern 
Towns. This prosperity continued through the 
colonial era far into the nineteenth century and gave 
impetus to many varied activities. It was perhaps 
the impulse which established at this remote point, 
the first newspaper published on the Island of 
Nassau. The Long Island Herald, edited by David 

' Great Pond. 

' See A^'ifw York Documentary History, vol. iii., pp. 363-88, 



234 EARLY LONG LSLAND. 

Frothingham, sent out its first number from Sag 
Harbour, May lo, 1791. Nine years later it was 
sold to Selleck Osborn, and reappeared as The Suf- 
folk County Herald. 

In 1640 was founded in the " New Haven Colony 
and Jurisdiction," a " New Plantation whose Design 
is Religion." Mr. Eaton and his associates then 
bought from the Long Island Indians Yennicock,' 
the peninsular extension of the present town of 
Southold. With it was included Robbin's Island in 
Peconic Bay, Plumb Island, Great and Little Gull 
Islands, and Fisher's Island.^ 

In September, a party came from Connecticut, of 
whom Peter Hallock first stepped on shore. The 
Planters^ were chiefly from Hingham, Norfolkshire, 
under the leadership of their pastor, the Reverend 
John Youngs." There Mr. Youngs " gathered his 

' The name Yenicock, or Yenicott, was used until 1644, when the 
settlement began to be spoken of as South Hold. The narrow spit 
of land from Orient Point and along the coast for thirty miles west- 
ward was called North Sea, or Northfleet. It has been claimed that 
a few men were settled there in 1638. 

^ Discovered by Adrian Block in 1614, and named for his ship- 
mate, Visscher's Eylandt. It was bought by John Winthrop, Gov- 
ernor of Connecticut, in 1644, and in 1668 patented to the NicoU 
family, "to be reputed, taken and held as an entire enfranchised 
township, manor and place of itself." 
^ They were : 

The Reverend John Youngs, Peter Hallock, 

Isaac Arnold, Barnabas Horton, 

John Budd, Thomas Mapes, 

Jacob Corey, Richard Terry, 

John Conkling, John Tuthill, 

Matthias Corwin, William Welles, Esq., 

Their wives and children. 
^ Mr, Youngs had been ordained in the Church of England. He 



GOVERNOR EATON'S CODE. 235 

church anew," October 21, 1640, and a meeting- 
house was at once built, the oldest church on Long 
Island, and, save the rude structure put up by Peter 
Minuet within the palisades of Fort Amsterdam, 
the oldest in New York. The house was built to 
serve for a place of defence, as well as of worship, sur- 
rounded by a stockade, while underneath was a dun- 
geon, the site of which is still marked by a depres- 
sion in the ground. Mr. Youngs was the civil and 
ecclesiastical ruler of the settlement, which modelled 
itself upon the theocracy of New Haven. A court 
was organised whose decisions were to be based 
upon the Levitical law.' Franchise was limited to 
members of the church. There being some opposi- 
tion to this restriction. New Haven sent a commit- 
tee to remonstrate with the objectors and to urge 
the importance of keeping the government in the 
hands of " God's elect." Southold submitted and 
promised faithful conformity to the laws of the 
mother colony. This was in 1643. 

In 1655 Governor Eaton formed a new code. The 
manuscript was sent to England to be printed, and 
five hundred copies were returned, together with a 
seal for the colony and great vellum-bound books 
for its official records. Fifty copies of the code were 
sent to Southold, but every one has disappeared.'' 

was the first Puritan minister in Nieuvv Nederlandt, and died at 
Southold, February 24, 1672. 

' " April 2, 1644. It is by the Town Meeting ordered that the 
judicial laws of God as they were delivered by Moses," etc. 

See Johnston's Connecticut. 

* Of the entire number, but one copy is known to exist, now in the 
the Library of the American Antiquarian Society at Worcester. 



236 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

There was most rigid provision for the prosecu- 
tion of " Heresy." In 1658 Humphrey Norton, a 
Quaker, was sent from Southold to New Haven for 
trial. There he was fined twenty pounds, severely 
whipped, branded with an " H," and banished, the 
court declaring that "this was the least they could do 
and maintain a clear conscience toward God." The 
next year, " one Smith of Southold, for embracing 
the opinions of the Quakers," was " whipped and 
bound in a bond of ;^50 for future good behaviour." 

There is a curious statute intended to regulate 
speech : " Every such person as inhabiteth among 
us and shall bee found to bee a common rate bearer, 
tattler, or busie bodie in idle matters, forger or 
coyner of reports, untruths or lyes, or frequently 
using provoking rude, unsavourie words tending to 
disturb the peace shall forfeit and pay for every 
default ten shillings." 

Shelter Island, then called Farret's Island, and 
later Sylvester's Island, submitted to New Haven in 
1648. Lord Sterling had given Farret permission to 
take up twelve thousand acres in payment for his 
services. He chose Shelter Island and Robin's 
Island, but sold them in 1641 to Stephen Goodyear 
of New Haven. June i, 1666, Governor NicoU 
gave a patent to Sylvester and Company' erecting 
the island into a manor to be held by the king in 
" free and common socage and by fealty only, yield- 

' They had bought the island of Goodyear in 1641 for one thou- 
sand pounds of Muscovado sugar. In 1641 they bargained with 
Governor Nicoll to be exempt from taxation by the payment of J^^^^o, 
half the value in beef and half in pork. 



ATTACHMENT TO CONNECTICUT. 237 

ing and paying over one lamb on the first day of 
March, if the same be demanded." On the Dutch 
re-conquest, Colve assumed the right of Constant 
Sylvester and his partner, Thomas Middleton, sell- 
ing their interest for ^^ 5,000 to Nathaniel Sylvester 
as sole owner. The business of Shelter Island was] 
done at the town meeting of Southold, and it had j 
no separate records before 1730. The manor finally/ 
coming into possession of the loyalist, Parker Wick- 
ham, Esquire, was confiscated by the New York 
Legislature, October 22, 1779. 

The southern shore of Long Island, so strewn with 
wrecks, has a sad history. Mournful relics are every- 
where met, and grievous tales are on the lips of 
every old longshoreman. But from one wreck was 
flotsam that has been rich treasure-trove to every 
cat-lover the country over. Late in the seventeenth 
century an Italian bark was dashed to pieces off the 
beach of Shelter Island. The crew were lost ; sole 
survivors of the disaster, there floated ashore on a 
broken spar two beautiful Maltese cats, the first that 
were known in America, progenitors of all that 
charming race. 

Not one of the eastern towns was more persistent , 
in determination to belong to New England than 
was the South Hold of New Haven. When the 
river towns and New Haven were united by Win- 
throp's charter (October 9, 1662) the new Colony of 
Connecticut claimed authority over eastern long 
Island, After the English conquest of Nieuw 
Nederlandt Governor Winthrop formally renounced 
the claim, but the people were by no means willing 



238 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

to give up the congenial Puritan associations for a 
government which they feared would introduce the 
license of the Court of Charles II. When Manning 
ignominiously yielded to the returning Dutch, they 
again attached themselves to Connecticut and were 
fierce in their resistance to the re-establishment of 
the Dutch power. 

After the Treaty of Westminster, Southold was 
^- still as anxious to remain a part of Connecticut as 
Connecticut was eager to continue her authority. 
Finally, seeing the determination of the Governor 
of New York to force their allegiance, they con- 
sented to receive the Overseers appointed by' Andros. 
A new Patent was given to the town, and it came 
within the jurisdiction of New York, October 31, 
1676. But this was done under bitter protest and 
with constant contrast of the freedom Connecticut 
then enjoyed with the arbitrary rule of the Duke 
of York. In June, 1689, during the revolutionary 
turmoil in New York, they made a last feeble and 
vl fruitless attempt to return to the government of 
Connecticut. 

The first Court of Sessions of which the records 
are preserved, was held March 4, 1669. It convened 
alternately at Southold and Southampton. The first 
court-house for Suffolk County was built at River 
Head in 1728. Ten years later, the population of 

' To Isaac Arnold, J. P., Samuel Glovor, 

Jacob Corey, Barnabas Horton, 

Joshua Horton Const, Benjamin Youngs. 

Capt. John Youngs. 
Two months later, December 27, 1676, they transfer the Patent to 
the freemen of the town. 



EASTHAMPTON. 239 

the county was there registered as " Whites and 
Blacks males and females above and under the age 
of ten years, 7,923." 

Fishing and sea-faring were early the chief occu- 
pations of the Southold men, but some attention 
was turned in other directions. In 1655, the Town 
Book records that " John Tucker of Southold has 
the ability to make steel, and desires to have the 
privilege of taking clay and wood out of any man's 
land." In 1687, Ezra L' Hommedieu, of Huguenot 
descent, opened a store at Southold village, on the 
Town Harbour Lane, now Main Street. The town 
grew in the slow, conservative way characteristic of 
Long Island, — a steady advance, but in seizing the 
new never letting go the old, and there the broad- 
roofed old houses still stand to speak of the 
seventeenth century. 

The chieftain of the Montauketts was called the 
Grand Sachem of Paumanacke. His supremacy was 
acknowledged by the lesser chiefs and his consent 
was necessary to all land transfers. So it was that 
Wyandanch, the friend of Lion Gardiner, made the 
conveyance of all land east of Southhampton ' to 
" the worshipful! Theophilus Eaton Esq. Governor 
of the Colony of New Haven, and the worshipfull 
Edward Hopkins, Governour of the Colony of Con- 
necticut and their Assotyats." This was done April 
29, 1648, in consideration of twenty coats, one hun- 
dred mucxes,' twenty-four looking-glasses, and as 

' A tract of about thirty thousand acres. The articles given in 
payment were vahied at ^^30 4^. 8(/. 
^ Eel-spears. 



240 EARL V LONG ISLAND. 

many hoes and hatchets. The heirs of the soil re- 
served only free liberty to fish in all the creeks " and 
ponds and to hunt up and down in the woods with- 
out molestation, giving the English Inhabitants, no 
just cause of ofTence, likewise to have the fynns and 
tayles of all whales cast up, and desire they may be 
dealt friendly with in the other part. . . . Alsoe to 
fish for shells to make wampum of, and if Indyans 
in hunting deer shal chase them into the water and 
the English shal kill them, the English shal have 
the bodie and the Indyans the skin." 

A few English settlers * came from Lynn and 
established themselves on the site of the quaint old 
village of Easthampton, and to them the Indian 
deed was transferred. Of the thirty-five original 
proprietors, thirteen family names had become ex- 
tinct in Easthampton a century ago, although from 
the first the people had guarded jealously their 
alliances, their associates,^ and the acres they hoped 
to transmit. New inhabitants were received only 
by the " Major vote " of the town, after a most care- 
ful inquisition : " Every man who shal take up a 
lott in the towne shal live upon it himself and no 

' John Hand, Sen. Thos. Thomson 

John Stretton, Sen. Dan'l Howe 

Thos. TaUmadge, Jun. Joshua Barnes 

Robert Bond Robert Rose 

John Mulford Thos. James. 

'^ The order is above written y* noe parson or parsons y' are 
strangers shalbe entertained by an Inhabitant of this towne upon 
y^ penal of 5 shillings a week as above specified in June 13: 1678, 
and it is nowtu all respects renewed & in force againe by y^ Con- 
stable & Overseers of y^ towne. . Book O p. 45. 
Apprill 26: 1679. 



ALLOTMENT OF LAND. 2^r 

y 

/ 

r" 

men shal sell his allottement or any parte thereof 
unlesse it be to suche as the Towne shal approve 
oi. 

It is said that even now an Easthampton man may 
be known from one reared in Southampton, as 
readily as a native of Kent is distinguished from a 
man born in Yorkshire, the English counties from 
which the two towns were chiefly settled.' The 
planters brought with them from their brief tarry in 
Massachusetts the same notions of civil and ecclesi- 
astical polity as there obtained. Organised as a 
pure democracy, Easthampton remained an inde- 
pendent commonwealth until 1658. In its first 
settlement, a home lot of eight or ten acres adjoin- 
ing the Town Pond was laid out to every man. 
This assignment was made April 16, 165 1. The 
unallotted land was owned in common. There was 
no common arable land, but open fields owned in 
severalty were often thus cultivated, as is shown by 
laws in regard to fencing and the trespass of cattle. 
The woodlands and meadows were assigned by vote 
of the Town Meeting. Since the middle of the 
eighteenth century, the common lands have been 
gradually absorbed by individual purchase. There 
is, however, a suggestive survival in the tacit per- 
mission for road-side pasturage, given a descendant 
of the first planters, while no such right would be 
allowed the cow of a recent comer. 

The laws were made by the major vote of the 
people in Town Meeting assembled, and from them 

' Hence Maidstone, the early name of the town, not however 

adopted until after the English conquest. 
i6 



242 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

there was no appeal, although the Townsmen some- 
times asked advice of the neighbouring towns of 
Southampton and Southold, and sometimes of the 
" Gentlemen at Hartford." The cases in court were 
usually actions for slander, for not even the fear of 
a cleft stick upon the tongue controlled that unruly 
member. 

Easthampton felt great alarm in 1652-3 during 
the fears of a plot between the Dutch and the 
Indians against the English incomers. It was made 
penal to sell an Indian arms, ammunition, or " more 
than two drams of strong water at a time." The 
men went armed to church under " penaltie of 12- 
pence." Guard was kept with orders to shoot any 
Indian who did not surrender when hailed the third 
time. When Cromwell's circular asking help in his 
proposed expedition against " the Dutch at the Man- 
hadoes " was received, June 29, 1654, the Town 
Meeting " considered the letters that have come 
from Connecticut wherein men are required to assist 
the power of England against the Dutch, and we 
doe think ourselves called to assist the said power." 
The speedy conclusion of peace between England 
and Holland prevented the opportunity for any 
such action. 

On March 19, 1658, Easthampton took the deci- 
sive step which made her for ten years a part of New 
England : " It is ordered and agreed upon by maior 
vote that Thomas Baker and John hand goe to Ken- 
iticut for to bring us under their jurisdiction." The 
action at Hartford was as follows : 

" May 3, 1658. Whereas formerly some overture 



UNDER JURISDICTION OF CONNECTICUT. 243 

have passed between the General Court of Connec- 
ticut, and some of the plantation of East Hampton 
concerning Union, and whereas the said town was 
entertained and accepted at a session thereof on the 
seventeenth November 1649 and have after divers 
yeares of farther consideration, againe renewed their 
desires to be under the government of Connecticut 
. . . it is agreed between the saide towne of East 
Hampton that they joyne themselves to the said 
Jurisdiction to bee subject to all the lawes there 
established according to the Word of God and right 
reason." 

A solemn oath of allegiance was taken to the new 
government : " I, A. B., an inhabitant of East 
Hampton by the providence of God, combined 
with the Jurisdiction of Connecticut doe acknow- 
ledge myself to bee subject to the government there- 
of and doe sweare by the great dreadefull name of 
the Everlasting God to bee true and faithfull to the 
same, and to submit both my person and estate there- 
unto according to all the wholesome laws &c. &c." 

After the English conquest of Nieuw Nederlandt, 
Easthampton was stubbornly reluctant to acknow- 
ledge the Governors of New York. Dongan, gener- 
ous man and just ruler, as a Catholic was specially 
disliked by the Puritan towns of Suffolk County. 
Easthampton sent an address to him with the threat 
that if it were not considered, they would appeal to 
their " most gracious Sovereign and prostrate them- 
selves before the throne of his unmatchable justice 
and clemency where we doubt not to find releife and 
restauration." 



244 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

Soon after, as recorded in the Town Book of 
1685/ Easthampton asserted boldly, and for the 
first time in our State of New York, the principle 
of " no taxation without representation." An ad- 
dress is made October i, 1685, by Thos. James, 

John Mulford, Thos. Tallmadge, and William 

" To the Honourable Governour, his Royal High- 
ness, the Duke of York, the humble Address of the 
Inhabitants of the Towne of East Hampton upon 
Long Island sheweth, 

" Whereas at the time the Government of New 
Yorke was established under our Sovereign Lord ye 
King by Collonell Richard Nicolls and those gentle- 
men sent in company with him, wee the Inhabitants 
of this towne, soe well as the reste of the Island 
being required, sent our messengers to attend theire 
Honors and then both by word and writeing wee 
were promised and engaged the enjoyment of all 
Privileges and liberties which other of his Majesty's 
subjects doe enjoy, which was much to our consent 
and satisfaction. Alsoe after this being required by 
theise his Ma"^^ Commissioners to send upp our 
Deputies to meete at Hempstede. And there the 
whole Island being Assembled in our Representa- 
tion, wee did then and there uppon ye renewall of 
these former promises of our freedom and liberties, 
grant and compact with ye said Collonell Niccol's 
government under his Royall Highness. That wee 
would allow soe much out of our estate yeerly as 

' The Records of Easthampton are copied and published in four 
volumes, " as a labour of love," which, as the editors add, " is the 
only spirit in which history can be written." See vol. ii., pp. 169-72. 



" PROHIBITED OF BIRTHRIGHT FREEDOMES." 245 

might defray ye charges of Publicke Justice amongst 
us & for Killing of wollves &c. 

" But may it please your Highness to understand 
that since yt time wee are deprived and prohibited 
of our Birthright freedomes and Privilleges to which 
both wee and our Ancestors were borne : although 
wee have neither forfeited them by any misdemean- 
our of ours, nor have at any time bene forbidden 
the due use and exercise of them by command of 
our gratious King yt we know. And as yet neither 
wee nor ye reste of his Ma''^^ subjects uppon this 
Islland have bene at any time admitted since then 
to enjoy a generall and free Assembly by our Rep- 
resentatives, as other of his Ma''^^ subjects have had 
the privilege ofT. But Lavv^es and orders have bene 
imposed uppon us from time to time without our 
consent, and therein wee are totally deprived of a 
Fundamental Privillege of our English nation. To- 
gether with ye obstruction of Trafificke & negotia- 
tion with other of his Ma*'^^ subjects, so yt wee are 
become very unlike all other colloneys & Jurisdic- 
tions here in America and cannot but much resent 
our greivance in this respect & remaine discouraged 
with respect to ye settle-ment of ourselves and pos- 
teritie after us. Yet all this time payments & per- 
formance of what have bene Imposed uppon us, 
have not bene omitted on our parts, although ye 
Performance of one Promised Privilleges aforesaid 
have bene wholly unperformed. And what payments 
from yeer to yeer this many yeres hath been made 
Use off to other purposes than att first they were 
granted for and intended by us so yt wee cannot but 



246 EARLY LOXG ISLAND. 

feare iff ye Publicke affaires of government shall 
continue in this manner as they have bene lest our 
freedom be turned into Bondage and our antient 
Privilleges so infringed yt they shall never arrive att 
our posteritie. And wee ourselves may be justlie, 
highly culpable before his Ma*^^ for our subjection 
to and supporting such a government, constituted 
so contrarie to ye fundamentall Lawes of England : 
It being a principall part of his Ma'^^'* Antient and just 
government to rule over a free people endowed with 
many privileges above others & not over bond men 
oppressed by Arbitrarie Impositions and executions." 

The spirit herein evinced was intensified a genera- 
y tion later in the vigorous protests of Samuel Mulford 
^ of Easthampton. He was one of those who had 
struggled most persistently against the separation 
from Connecticut. First elected in 1705. the Deputy 
from Suffolk to the General Assembly in New York, 
for many years he kept up an animated controversy 
with the Assembly and the Governor relative to 
finance and the disbursement of the revenue. He 
addressed to the Governor a memorial, which be- 
gins with the grave formality of the time, and 
" Sheweth : 

" When the enemies of the Nation had by their 
wicked Councils and travterous Intreagues broug^ht 
our Nation to the very Brink of being swallowed up 
by Popish Superstition ami Arbitrary GozTrnment, it 
hath pleased the Almighty God by his wonderful 
Omnipotence to bring on Peace and settle his most 
Sacred Majesty King Georoe upon the BRITISH 
throne," etc. 



SAMUEL MVLFORD AT COURT. 247 

The paper is a careful summary of the population 
and property of the various counties, and of the un- 
equal taxation and inadequate representation, from 
which they had suffered.' It ends with a 

" Quaere, Is tlie Government carried on for his 
Majesties Benefit and the Good of his subjects ac- 
cording to the Lawes and Customs of the Colony, 
and according to the English Government, or, is it 
Arbitrary, lUegaL Grievous, Oppressive, Unjust and 
Destructive f " 

It was not until 1716 that Governor Hunter could 
so influence elections as to convoke an Assembly 
whose majority was in his favour. The main point \/ 
at issue had been the dutv on whales. The Gov- 
ernor demanded a tax of ten per cent, on all oil. 
Mulford resolved on a direct appeal to the Crown, 
and secretly went to Boston, thence to sail for Eng- 
land. He appeared at Court in homespun, there to 
state his case. A '' Memorial of several aggriev- 
ances and oppressions of his Majesty's subjects in 
the Colonv of New York in America, " was written 
by him. and distributed in person at the doors of the 
House of Commons. It excited much attention as 
a " bold denunciation of the usurpations of the gov- 
ernment and maladministration of its functions, a 
charge of burdensome taxes, &c.." but it does not 
appear to have influenced the colonial legislation in 
any particular way. 

When Governor Hunter knew of Mulford's depart- 
ure for England, he wrote to the Lords of Trade : 

' See this most interesting memorial in the Docununiary Histery 
of Krw York, vol. iii., pp. 363-71. 



248 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

" I must do the Province the justice to assure you 
he is the only mutineer within it. He has in all ad- 
ministrations during his life flown in the face of the 
government and ever disputed with the crown the 
right of whale fishery." Elsewhere, Hunter calls 
him " that poor cracked man, Mulford." The con- 
temporary estimate of any agitator, even by his 
friends, is seldom a just one, and the memory of 
men like the Easthampton protestant may well be 
left to a more discriminating future. 

The first INIeeting-house was built in 1652, twenty- 
six by thirty feet, thatched with straw. It was 
replaced in 1717 by a structure called the finest 
building on Long Island. Those were the days of 
long pastorates, and the founder of " The Society," 
the Reverend Thomas James, remained in of^ce 
until his death in 1696.' He was followed by Na- 
thaniel Huntting, and he, in 1746, by Dr. Buel, a 
pupil of Jonathan Edwards, who was replaced in 
1798 by Lyman Beecher. Stirring sermons issued 
from that old pulpit from the days of the first pastor 
down. For more than a century and a half its oc- 

' He is buried in Easthampton under a stone bearing the inscription : 

MR. 

THOMAS 

l.\MES DYED 

YE 16 DAY OF 

IVNE IN TE 

YEARE 1696. HE 

WAS MINISTRE 

OF TE GOSPELL 

AND PASTVRE 

OF YE CHVRCH 

OF CHRIST. 



EASTHAMPTON PASTORS. 249 

cupants were men of the most positive and even 
aggressive character, and of unusual intellectual 
force. Mr. James was more than once arraigned for 
sedition. In 1686, the people made an angry protest 
against the action cf the High Sheriff in laying out 
parts of the Common Land — the arable mark, to 
persons who had complained of receiving no allot- 
ment. While the excitement was at its height, Mr. 
James preached from Job xxiv. : 2, and the curses 
invoked upon him who removed his neighbour's 
landmarks were given an application to the exist- 
ing trouble much resented by the civil authorities.' 

Dr. Buell, a scholar and a sportsman, was during 
the Revolution a most determined Whig, but still, a 
warm personal friend of Governor Tryon and Sir 
William Erskine. At one time the latter had or- 
dered certain military operations to be performed on 
Sunday. The order was not obeyed, and on inquiry 
into the reasons therefor. Dr. Buell replied, " I am 
commander of this people on that day, and have 
countermanded the order." 

The first schoolmaster of Easthampton, Charles 
Barnes, died in 1663. He had received a salary of 
thirty pounds. He was followed by one Peter 
Remsen. The Clinton Academy, founded by Dr. 
Buell, was opened in 1784. Chartered the same day 
as Erasmus Hall, Flushing, the two are the oldest 
academies in the State. The first principal was Wil- 
liam Paine," whose prospectus announces that " the 

' See Documentary History of New York, vol. iii., pp. 354-59. 
- A descendant of Thomas Paine of Eastham, founder of " the 
Cape Family," and the father of John Howard Payne. The vine- 



250 EARLY LOJVG ISLAND. 

utmost attention will be given to establish such 
plans of discipline as will fix the attention and win 
the compliance of the pupils, while they inform the 
mind, improve the manners and rectify the heart." 
Of the exhibition of the school, held a year later, 
there remains a contemporary report : '* Fifty 
youths, of whom there were not five whose accom- 
plishments would not be an ornament to the Pulpit 
and the Bar. What is remarkable, is the number of 
young ladies who presented themselves with the 
ease and elegance of an Assembly Room, and the 
elocution of a theatre." 

Easthampton grew rapidly as growth was then 
counted, and forty years after Wyandanch's deed, its 
population was thus enumerated. 

"Jan. the 12th i68| 

'* To the Sheriffe in obedience to his warrant the 

number of male persons, men and children is twoe 

hundred and twenty-three .... 223 

'• The number of famals women and children is 

twoe hundred and nineteene . . . .219 

■' The number of male servants is twenty-six . 026 

" " " famal " " nine . . 009 

" " •' male slaves " eleven . cii 

" " " famale " " fourteen . 014 

''And out of the Account above, the number of 
such as are Capable to beare arms is ninety-eight of 
which in the liste of the ffoot company is aughty 
inditFerently well-anned, exercised four times a yeare 
according to Law. 

co^•ercd house in which the lyrist was born, still stands in the wide 
elm-shaded street of Easthampton. 



HUNTIXGTOX. 25 1 

"The number of mcrchaunts istwoe 

*' marriages for seven yeares past is 
twenty-eight. 

" The number of births for seven years past is 
one hundred and sixteene of whieh there are ehris- 
tened one hundred and aught. 

" The number of burials for seven years past is 
fifty-seven. 

" Wee find noe arrears due to his IMa""^'- And for 
Land held by Pattent we refer you to our Pattent, 
being Ignorant what to doe on that aecount and 
cannot give account any other ways for the present." 



A deed of the Neck separating Huntington Bay 
from Smithtown Ba}' was given b}- the Indians to 
Theophilus Eaton in 1646. But no actual settlers 
came within the limits of Huntington before 1653. 
A deed ' of six square miles between Cold Spring 
and Northport was then given for six coats, ten 
hatchets, ten knives, six bottles, thirty needles, six 
mucxes, and six fathoms of wampum. No other 
records are earlier than 1657. The first minutes of 
a Town Meeting are in 1659. 

The people came in three distinct parties. First, 
were the followers of the Reverend Mr. Leveridge, 
coming from New Haven. Branford. and thereabouts. 
These settled along the valley on *' The Old Town 
Spot." An offshoot of the Hempstead Colony and 
men from Southold and Southampton made up the 
number of the early settlers. 

' Given by Ratioc.in, tlio Sagamore of ^[:l^tinnecock to Richard 
lloulbrook, RobiuJ ^Villiams, and Daniel ^Vhilehead. 



252 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

The history of the planting of Huntington is in 
modified form that of the Eastern towns. All asso- 
ciations, civil, ecclesiastical, or social, were with New 
England rather than with Nieuw Nederlandt. In 
1658, application was made to be annexed to the 
J New Haven Colony,' and Jonas Wood, H. (Halifax) 
and Jonas Wood, 0km (Oakham) were sent to New 
Haven to make the negotiation. It was agreed that 
Huntington should be received on the same terms 
as Southold, but for some reason the transaction was 
not completed. Finally, the connection made was 
thus recorded in the Town Book : 

" 10 Appril, 1660 in Town Meeting put to vote con- 
serning joyning to a jeurisdiction. The major vote 
was for to be under Coneticot jeurisdiction." Two 
years later, Huntington is sending deputies to the 
General Court at Hartford. 

A Committee was early appointed to examine into 
the character of all persons proposing to settle in 
the new town. Slander and trespass were the most 
serious cases on the records of the Court. All trade 
was by the primitive methods of barter, and assess- 
ors were appointed to fix the value of cattle and of 
farm produce.^ 

When the cattle pastured on the common field 

* This was at the General Court held May 26, 165S. See Hoadley's 
Colonial Records of New Haven, vol. ii. , p. 236. 
- February 16, 16S4, is the following rate : 

" Good Merchantabell winter whet at 4 sh. ye bushell. 
" " somer " 3 s. 6d. 

" " Indian corne 2 

" " porke • 2d. the lb. 

" " long whallbone 6d. " 



PROTECTION OF THE WHALE FISHERY. 253 

were herded at night, they were driven home and 
tethered near the Watch-Tower, a rude fort on the 
Village Green, the " Town-Spot" proper. Hard by- 
was the Sheep-Washing Brook, and the Meeting- 
house Brook. There the first church was built in 
1665. On the hill which rose above the Town Spot 
was the first burial-ground still preserving stones 
which reach back to the second generation of settlers. 
In 1660, a schoolhouse was built near " The Goose 
Green." The first schoolmaster had been engaged 
three years earlier. 

Caumsett, or Horse Neck, later Lloyd's Neck, 
was deeded to Samuel Mayo, Daniel Whitehead, and 
Peter Wright in 1654. It had been included in the 
Huntington Patent and long litigation ensued until, 
after an independent manorial existence of more than 
a century, it was finally set off to Oyster Bay in 1788. 
The township of Huntington was incorporated by ■/ 
Governor Nicoll, November i, 1666. 

Extending to the South Beach, Huntington had 
her rights in the drift-whales and in fisheries to de- . 
fend, rights carefully guarded in the town legisla- 
tion :' "April 12, 1671. Ordered and agreed that no 
foreigner or person of any other town upon this 
island shall have liberty to kill whales, or other 
small fish within the limits of our bounds at the 
South Side of the Island. Neither shall any inhab- 
itant give leave to such foreigner, or other town's 

' The Trustees named in the patent were : 

Jonas Wood, Thomas Skidmore, 

Wm. Leveredge, Isaac Piatt, 

Robert Seely, Thomas Jones, 

John Ketcham, Thomas Weeks. 



Ny 



254 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

inhabitant whereby the Company of Whalemen may 
be damnified except such foreigner come into the 
said company as a half-share-man." The Governor 
received one-fifteenth the oil from all whales cast on 
shore. The right of drift-whales was a privilege 
bought and sold in all the Eastern Towns. 

Security came with longer abode in the new Town- 
spot. In 1680 it was "voted by the Major part of 
the town that Mr. Jones should have the fTort to 
make firewood of." The Reverend Eliphalet Jones 
was the successor of Mr. William Leveredge, the first 
minister of the town. He was chosen by a unani- 
mous vote at Public Training, and was the preacher 
from 1677 until his death in 1731 at the age of 
ninety-three. Ebenezer Prime had been chosen as 
his assistant, and he remained in the Presbyterian 
Church of Huntington for sixty years, dying in 
1779. 

The entries in the Town Bqoks have the flavour 
of a primitive frontier life. One finds an ordinance 
against keeping geese which are " prejedittial to the 
towne because ye sheepe do not keepe in ye streetes 
as formerly, but Run ye woods whereby they are 
more exposed to be devoured by the wolves : be- 
cause they cannot abide to feed where ye geese do 
keepe." Wolves, wildcats, and deer were many in 
the rugged glens among the Dix Hills and the West 
Hills, or in the wild ravines running down to the 
Bay. 

It is not certain whether the name of Hunting 
Town, or Hunting, as sometimes written, was given 
from the abundance of game, or from the family 



~ BROOKHAVEN. 255 

of Huntting, a leading one in Southampton, some 
members of whom were among the early settlers. 
The forms of Huntting's Town and Hunttingtown 
are sometimes seen, and give weight to this opinion. 
The name is also written as Huntingdon. The first 
patent was taken in the very month in which Crom- 
well dissolved the Long Parliament, a movement 
with which the planters were in close sympathy. 
The town may hence have been named from the 
birthplace of the great Protector, a tribute easily for- 
gotten or purposely neglected after the Restoration. 

The Town Book of 1685 fixes "The Turkes 
Ratte," a tax levied toward the ransom of the Eng- 
lish prisoners taken by Algerine pirates. This is a 
noteworthy instance of how, early in her history, 
the sympathies of America began to flow East and 
West — the world over. 

In 1741, Huntington complained much of the dif- 
ficulty and hardships in attending Courts at River 
Head. It petitioned the colonial government to be V 
annexed to Queen's County, or otherwise, that it 
might be included in a new county, to be formed 
with Brookhaven, Smithtown, and Islip. No action 
was taken thereon, and four times a year the towns- 
people continued to journey over the imperfect 
roads, or to follow an Indian trail to the County 
Assizes. 

The lands of Brookhaven belonged on the South 
Shore to the Pochaug Indians, and on the north to 
the Setaukets. From the latter, the lands were 
bought by the first settlers, who came from Boston 



V- 



256 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

in 1655. They settled at Setauket, naming the 
place Ashford, and calling the harbour Cromwell 
Bay. In danger both from the Dutch and the In- 
dians, by each of whom they were regarded as 
intruders, in 1659, they petitioned the General Court 
of Connecticut to take them under its protection. 
After two years of correspondence and deliberation, 
it was agreed at Hartford to accept " the plantation 
of Setauk " on the same articles of confederation as 
were granted Southhampton. The union was of 
brief duration, although the Duke's government was 
never welcome.' Colonel NicoU's Patent of Confir- 
mation was granted March 7, 1666, giving to the 
settlement the privileges of a township. 

The year before, Brookhaven had appeared at the 
Court of Assize in New York in a case unique in the 
criminal annals of our State." Ralph Hall and his 
wife Mary, of " Sealtacott," were charged with hav- 
ing " by some detestable and wicked acts, commonly 
called witchcraft and sorcery, procured the death of 
one George Wood, and the infant child of Ann 
Rogers, widdow of ye aforesaid George Wood." A 
solemn indictment was read by " the clarke," to 
which they pleaded not guilty. The jury, of which 
Jacob Leister was one, did not agree ; the accused 
were put under bonds for good behaviour, and par- 
doned by Governor Nicoll within two years. 

' In 1664, a Brookhaven man was put into the stocks for saying, 
" The King was none of his king, nor the Governor, his governor." 

* In 1657, the wife of Joshua Garlick, of Easthampton, had been 
arrested on suspicion of witchcraft. The Town Court felt incapable 
of dealing with such a case, and it was r.eferred to the General Court 
at Hartford. 



THE MEETING-HOUSE, 2^7 

The first Meeting-house was built in 1671, its site 
being chosen by a " Providential lott." The Rev- 
erend Nathaniel Brewster, nephew of Elder Brewster 
of the Mayfioiver, had already been in the town for 
several years. Mr. Brewster was one of the first 
class graduated by Harvard College in 1642. With 
most of his classmates he had gone to England to 
enjoy in their old home the liberty of thought al- 
lowed during the Civil Wars and the Common- 
wealth. After the Restoration, he, with others, 
returned to America. He came to Brookhaven in 
1665, and remained their pastor for about twenty 
years. In 1687, the Town Meeting voted to "build 
a house the same dimensions as Jonathan Smith's, 
to remain a Parsonage house to all perpetuity." At 
a Town Meeting in 1703 the following action is 
taken : 

" Whereas there have been severall rude actions 
of late happened in our church by reason of the 
people not being seated, which is much to the dis- 
honour of God, and the discouragement of virtue. 
For preventing the like again, it is ordered that the 
Inhabitants be seated after manner and form follow- 
ing. All freeholders that have, or shall within the 
month subscribe to pay 40 shillings to Mr. Phillips 
toward his sallary, shall be seated at the table, and 
that no ivomen are permitted to sit there, except Col. 
Smit/is Lady, nor any woman-kind : and that the 
President for the time shall set in the right-hand 
seat under the pulpit, and the Clerk on the left ; the 
trustees in the front seat, and the Justices that are 

Inhabitants of the Town shall set at the table 
17 



2;S £As:Ly loxg /sl,4XD. 

whether they pay 40 shillings or less. And pew 
No : I all such persons as shall subscribe 20 shillings ; 
the pew No: 2 such as shall subscribe 10 shillings; 
No : 4. S shillings. No : 7, for the young men ; No : 
8. for boys ; No : 9 for the ministers widows and 
wives and for such women whose husbands shall 
pay 40 shillings to set according to their age ; No : 
II for those men's wives that pay from 20 to 15 
shillings; No: 12 for men's wives that pay from 10 
to 15 shillings. The alley between the pews to be 
for such maids whose parents or selves shall pay for 
two, 6 shillings ; No: 13 for maids. No: 14 for girls, 
and No : 1 5 free for any." 

The first Episcopal Church on Long Island was 
built at Setauket in 1750. It still stands upon the 
village height, overlooking the beautiful harbour, 
with blue glimpses of the Sound between Crane's 
Neck and Old field Point. Caroline Church — no 
nobler memorial has Caroline of Brandenburgh than 
this little chapel, to which the Queen sent silver 
patens and chalice, fair linen, and books for its sim- 
ple altar.* The church is thirty-four by fifty feet in 
dimensions, built with an architectural grace at 
that time rare in the New World. The windows 
of the nave have rounded arches ; a cruciform win- 
dow is in the chancel. The weather-vane is still the 
English flag. The church was repaired in 1S14, but 
retains its original features. 

Brookhaven was the township of great family 
estates. The aristocratic conservatism of western 

' These gifts were stolen during the Re\-olution by marauders fiom 
'* the Christiaa shore," as the Independents called Connecticut. 



THE TANGIER BOOK. 259 

Suffolk was here at its best. Here were the Floyd 
lands, descending from Richard Floyd of Wales, 
the first patentee ; stretching westward, well into 
Islip, was the NicoU domain of a hundred square 
miles, handed down from Matthias Nicoll, the first 
Secretary of the Province of New York.' In 1786 tv'"^-*^ I'v 
Colonel William Smith, whose public life began as ' 

a page in the Court of the Merrie Monarch, some- 
time Governor of Tangier, and later Chief Justice of 
the Province, bought Little Neck and lands to the 
Eastward,* which in 1693 were erected into the Manor 
of Saint George. The family founded ' was one of 
wide influence in colonial history. " Col. Smith's 
Lady," to whom had been given a seat " at the 
table" in the old Meeting-house, was Martha Tuns- 
tall of Surrey. Known throughout Long Island as 
Madam Smith, she seems to have been a most nota- 
ble housewife as well as stately chatelaine. She 
bargained sharply for her share of the drift-whales, 
and looked closely to the ways of her household. 
In The Tangier Book, 2i manuscript volume of family 
history, written by Colonel Smith, are many entries 
in her hand, curious recipes, and many a valuable 
direction for the simple domestic economy of the 
day. 

' His son, his grandson, and his great-grandson, each bearing the 
name of William Nicoll, represented Suffolk in the Colonial Assem- 
bly in uninterrupted succession from 1701-75. 

* Lord Bellamont wrote to the Board of Trade in 1699 • "Col. 
Smith's grant runs 50 miles in length on Long Lsland with an infinite 
no: of goodly pines for pitch-tar & rozen." 

' Known as the Tangier-Smiths in distinction from the Bull-Smiths 
of Smithtown, and the Rock-Smiths of Hempstead. 



36o EARL V LONG ISLAND. 

Smithtown is the only one of the old towns that 
was not organised while the banner of the Nether- 
lands waved from the flagstaff of Fort Amsterdam. 
In 1659 Wyandanch had given a large tract of land 
within its future limits to Lion Gardiner in recogni- 
tion of his rescue of the Sachem's daughter. The 
gift was afterwards confirmed by the Nessaquogue 
Indians, along whose beautiful river lay most of the 
land. In 1663 Gardiner sold his claims to Major 
Richard Smith, the Bull-rider, who bought from the 
Indians more land to the southward. The town was 
first patented in 1677. Its early records are lost, no 
minutes of the Town Meetings before 171 5 being 
preserved. 

Major Smith, one of Cromwell's soldiers,' had 
been a freeholder of Brookhaven, owning a house 
and lot at Setaukett in 1657. On his purchase of 
this land, he came to Smithfield, as the region was 
long called. Just where the Horserace Lane joins 
the Nessaquogue River Road, an overgrown hollow 
in the ground, and a few old fruit trees, mark the 
site of his first house. On the hill above, beneath 
gnarled cedars and a crumbling willow, are the graves 
of the patriarch and his earliest descendants. With 
his seven sons, he devoted himself to the develop- 
ment of his domain of thirty thousand acres, one 
of the most fertile and picturesque regions on the 
Island, and there his posterity still hold the domi- 
nant influence. 

' His favourite musket, " Old Crib," a relic of Marston Moor and 
of Naseby, still hangs in the ancestral mansion of one of his de- 
scendants. 



XII. 



DUTCH AND ENGLISH CLAIMS TO LONG ISLAND. 



THE early history of Long Island cannot be told 
without constant consideration of the respec- 
tive claims of the Dutch and of the English 
to the Island, first discovered as such by the Holland 
schipper Adrian Block. Its possession was the cause 
of a long-standing quarrel which grew naturally out 
of the short-sighted, open-handed way in which 
kings and councils disposed of the New World. The 
patent to the Plymouth Company extended beyond 
'T Zuydt Rivier of the Nieuw Nederlandt. The lat- 
ter grant to Lord Sterling was for " the County of 
Canada and Long Island." On the other hand, the 
Dutch rested on their right of discovery, not merely 
by Hudson, Block, and their fellows in actual land- 
fall upon the disputed coasts, but by the great 
Genoese himself, inasmuch as they had been the 
subjects of the royal house under which Columbus 
sailed, and by which the first colonies in America 
were planted. Nieuw Nederlandt, with Curagoa and 
more distant dependencies, had been conveyed by 

26r 



262 EARL Y LONG ISLAND. 

full title from Philip to the United Nederlands when 
the}- achieved their independence of Spain.' 

The Hollanders held that their right extended 
eastward as far as Cape Cod, the Malabarre of the 
old charts, and they attempted the occupation of 
the country to 'T Verssche Rivier. There, they 
built in 1633, on the site of Hartford, a trading post, 
*' 'T Huys de Hoop," only to be dispossessed by the 
^lassachusetts in-comers, the men from Watertown, 
who planted Hartford, Wethersfield, and Windsor. 

As early as 1627, there was much friendly corre- 
spondence between the governors of Nieuw Neder- 
landt and of Plymouth. Governor Bradford wrote 
to Peter Minnit, " Our children after us shall never 
forget the good and courteous entreaty which we 
found in your country, and shall desire your pros- 
perity." But he goes on to say that the English 
Patent extended to 40°, within which the Dutch are 
forbidden to plant, or to trade. Minuit replied that 
his authority is from the States of Holland, and that 
therewith he shall defend the Dutch occupation. 
In October of the same year, Isacq de Rasieres was 
sent on a friendly mission to New Plymouth, and 

^ Their modem historians still repeat these claims. The Chevalier 
Lambrechtsen, writing a history of Xiemv XcJ<:rla)sdt in iSrS, says : 
" Even Long Island, separated by the East River from the continent, 
and without any question first discovered and settled by the Nether- 
landers ; yea, as they declare, bought from the Indians and adorned 
with several Xetherland villages and forts, was a fertile country- and 
blessed with good harbours. So favourable a situation, so desira- 
ble for fishery, was alluring to the English. Thus several of them 
settled on the East of the Island, building the villages of Southampton 
and Southold, for which they afterward claimed half the Island." 



REFERENCE TO THE PO WERS A T HOME. 263 

Bradford, in confidence, advised the Dutch to "clear 
their title." 

A few years later, John Winthrop, writing in his 
Journal, October 2, 1633, of the return of the Bless- 
ing of the Bay from its southward cruise, says : 
" They were also at the Dutch plantation upon 
Hudson's River (called New Netherlands) where 
they were kindly entertained, and had some beaver 
and other things for such commodities as they put 
off. They showed the Governour Gwalter van 
Twilly their Commission which was to signify to 
them that the King of England had granted the 
River and Country of the Connecticut to his own 
subjects and therefore desired them to forbeare to 
build there &c. The Dutch Governour wrote back 
to our Governour (his letter was very courteous and 
respectful as if to a very honourable person) whereby 
he signifies that the Lords of the States have also 
granted the same parts to the West India Company, 
and therefore requested that we would forbeare the 
same until the matter was decided between the King 
of England and the said Lords." * 

The Massachusetts immigrants nevertheless soon 
pressed southward and attempted the planting of 
'T Lange Eylandt. As has been said, all the Eng- 
lish settlements were of New England origin ; not 
one of them was directly from home. Naturally, 
then, the civil and religious polity of Connecticut 
and the Bay Colony was transplanted. The inevit- 
able result followed. Narrow as was that polity ir 

' Winthrop's History of A'ew England, vol. i., p. 134. 



264 EARLY LONG ISLAND, 

some of its workings, it was the ferment quickening 
to a more active political life. The English Towns 
were little autonomies and held themselves as far as 
possible aloof from the government at Nieuw Am- 
sterdam. The Dutch Towns envied their greater 
freedom, and chafed under the authority of their 
own rulers. Thus, thirty years of discontent, of 
jealousy and wrongdoing, prepared the way for that 
easy transfer of a province which broke the heart of 
Pieter Stuyvesant. 

But much of the substantial greatness of New 
York, in character and in material riches, comes from 
those sterling traits which are our Dutch inheritance. 
The virtues of the Hollanders were those most akin 
to English blood. The Netherlands were then one 
of the first powers of Europe, negotiating on equal 
terms with England and with France. The Admiral 
Tromp swept the English Channel while the ink was 
drying on the Hartford Treaty. It was the land of 
Erasmus and of Grotius which sent learned Domines 
to preside over the churches of the province, and 
wise Doctors of the Law to sit as schout and schepen 
in its courts. From the wharfs and warehouses of 
Amsterdam came skillful schippers and far-sighted 
merchants to lay the foundations for the commercial 
strength of the Greater New York, while from the 
heroic land of William the Silent and of Prince 
Maurice of Barneveldt, and of John de Witt could 
come only men trained in a school of. political free- 
dom. It was a noble school, whence came our idea 
of federal union and of much that is best in our own 
government. Every child of the over-ridden Hoi- 



TREATY WITH TASHPAVSHA. 265 

land loved her hard-won soil, and with our Dutch 
blood may well descend a love of country and of 
home such as flows not in other veins. 

The spirit of the Dutch is shown in the instruc- 
tions of the West India Company to the Director- 
General of their colony : " He should rule as their 
father, not as their executioner and leading them 
with a gentle hand. He who governs them as a 
friend and associate would be beloved by them, but 
he who should rule them as a superior, will over- 
throw and bring to naught everything, yea, will stir 
up against him the neighbouring provinces to which 
the impatient will fly. It is better to govern by 
love and friendship than by force." 

Home-loving thrift was a characteristic of this 
practical people, who had a turn for organisation 
and a bent toward agriculture, all important in a 
new country. They bought their land of the In- 
dians, and with few exceptions their dealings with 
them were reciprocally friendly. Even after the 
massacre at Pavonia, and the retaliation at Mas- 
peth, an agreement is entered into " Betwixt ye 
government of ye New Netherland and Tashpausha, 
March ye 12th, 1646, as followeth : I. That all in- 
juries formerly past in the time of the Governor's 
predecessors should be forgiven and forgotten sence 
ye yeare 45 and never be remembered." But, after 
many protestations of friendship, one clause is to be 
noted : " The Governor of the New Netherland doth 
promise to make no peace with the Indians that did 
th^ spoile at ye Manhatan, ye 15th Sept. last." 

Religious freedom, as far as its spirit was then 



266 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

understood, was allowed. The States-General tried 
to encourage immigration by inviting " Christian 
people of tender conscience in England, or elsewhere 
oppressed," to make a home with them. But, 
marked exceptions were made of the Quakers and 
Anabaptists, whom Josselyn says "they imprison, 
fine, and weary out." Stuyvesant had little patience 
with the Quakers. His course toward them brought 
upon him a reproof from the Directors in Holland, 
whose letter well expresses the general policy of the 
company : " Let every one remain free as he is mod- 
est, moderate, his political conduct irreproachable 
and as long as he do not offend others or oppose the 
Government. This maxim of moderation has always 
been the guide of our magistrates in this city and 
the consequence has been that people have flocked 
from every land to this asylum. Tread thus in 
their steps and we doubt not you will be blessed." 

The spirit of migration, so characteristic of Ameri- 
can civilisation, was early shown. Its impelling 
causes were much the same as in the nineteenth 
century. Winthrop writes in his Journal: "1642, 
Mo. 7 : 22. The sudden fall of land, cattle and the 
scarcity of foreign comodities and money, etc. with 
the access of people from England, put many into 
an unsettled frame of spirit, so as they concluded 
there would be no subsisting here. Accordingly 
they began to hasten away, some to the West 
Indies, others to the Dutch at Long Island for the 
Governor there who had invited them by very fair 
offers." 

The same year, 1642, Sir William Boswell, English 



STUYVESANT'S EMBASSY TO WINTHROP. 267 

Ambassador at The Hague, desired the House of 
Commons to take action in regard to the Dutch oc- 
cupation in America. He urged that the English 
in Connecticut should " not forbeare to put forward 
their plantations and crowd on, crowding the Dutch 
out of their place where they have occupied." It 
was perhaps from this advice that the English were 
always the aggressors. Stuyvesant certainly began 
his administration in friendly spirit. Winthrop 
writes : " 1647, 4 "^o- • ^- The new governour of 
the Dutch called Peter Stevesant being arrived at 
the Monodos sent his Secretary to Boston with let- 
ters to the Governour with tender of all courtesy 
and good correspondency, but withal taking notice 
of the differences between them and Connecticut 
and offering to have them referred to friends here 
not to determine, but to prepare for a hearing and 
determination in Europe, in which letter he lays 
claim to all between Connecticut [River] and Dela- 
ware. The Commissioners being assembled at Bos- 
ton, the Governour acquainted them with the letter 
and it was put to consideration what answer to re- 
turn. Some advised that seeing he made proffer of 
much goodwill and neighbourly correspondency, we 
should seek to gain upon him by courtesy and there- 
fore to accept his offer and tender him a visit at his 
own home, or a meeting at any of our towns which 
he should choose. But the Commissioners of those 
parts thought differently supposing it would be 
more to their advantage to stand upon times, dis- 
tance etc. An answer was returned accordingly, 
only taking notice of his offer and shewing our 



268 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

readiness to give him a meeting in time and place 
convenient. So matters remained as they were." 

But only for a short time. The affair was con- 
stantly discussed in the slow fashion of diplomacy. 
To the wiser men on either side, a friendly compro- 
mise seemed not impossible, while in his well-con- 
sidered Observations on the Colonisation of Nicmv 
Nederlandty the Secretary van Tienhoven in May, 
1650, proposed a strategic movement apparently 
feasible : " The further progress of the English upon 
Long Island would, in my opinion be prevented and 
estopped without the settlement of the boundary, 
by the following means: First by purchasing of the 
natives the lands situate on the east point of Long 
Island, not already bought ; that done, by taking 
possession of the east point which is about three 
leagues from Southampton and by securing its pos- 
session by a Redoubt and small Garrison, and set- 
tling it by means of a Colonic. The west part of 
the aforesaid sea' being taken possession of in like 
manner, the villages of Southampton and Southold 
would be shut in. After this is accomplished, Sick- 
eteu Hacky, Oyster Bay and Martin Gerretsen's 
Bay must be taken possession of. The whole of 
Long Island would be thereby secured to Nieuw 
Nederlandt, and the design of the English in regard 
to the domination of the said convenient harbour be 
rendered fruitless and null." " 

In the middle of September. 1650, the Director- 
General set out for the Connecticut. A four days' 

' 'T Cromme Gouwe, or Peconic Bay. • 
- New York Colonial Dccumcttis, i., p. 360. 



THE HARTFORD TREATY. 269 

voyage brought him to Hartford, where he was re- 
ceived with due courtesy. " To avoid all incon- 
veniency by verbal speaking, through hastiness or 
otherwise," Stuyvesant wished the business to be 
done by writing. His first communication was dated 
Nieuw Nederlandt. The New England Commis- 
sioners refused to act unless he withdrew the term, 
or explained the sense in which he thus dated a 
letter in Hartford. He did explain that the letter 
had been first written in Nieuw Amsterdam, with 
the approval of the Eight-Men, and had been copied 
by him on board the yacht. He would hereafter 
say " Hartford in Connecticut " if the English would 
not say " Hartford in New England." * 

Five days of wordy negotiation followed, until the 
afTair was finally left to four arbitrators who drew 
up the Articles of Agreement constituting the famous 
Hartford Treaty. Simon Bradstreet and Thomas 
Prence were the Commissioners for the United Colo- 
nies, while Captain Thomas Willet and George 
Baxter were chosen by Stuyvesant to represent 
Nieuw Nederlandt. They fixed the boundary be- 
tween the Dutch and English on Long Island to be 
" a line run from the westernmost part of Oyster 
Bay, so in a straight and direct line to the sea." 
But its exact bearings were long a matter of dispute. 
The god Terminus was not a recognised divinity 
among our early settlers. 

Meanwhile there was discord among the Dutch 

' Stuyvesant had often addressed letters to "New Haven in the 
Netherlands." In his eyes, the English village was still " 'T Roode 
Berg." 



270 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

and many complaints against Stuyvesant. Van der 
Donck blamed him greatly for the concessions of the 
Treaty, declaring that " 'T Verssche Rivier " should 
have been the eastern boundary of Nieuw Neder- 
landt and that all of Long Island should have been 
kept by the Dutch. Their trade, he asserted, would 
be greatly injured by the conditions of the treaty. 
New England was given control of wampum-making, 
the currency of the province, — and so on, objecting 
to the several points of the Treaty. 

As the various Chambers of the West India Com- 
pany were heard from, all agreed that in any fair 
adjustment of boundaries. Long Island, "lying right 
in front of the Coast," should have remained a part 
of Nieuw Nederlandt. The English in the western 
half of the Island warmly supported the Director- 
General. Baxter, representing Gravesend, in 165 1, 
addressed the Amsterdam Chamber, expressing the 
joy of the people that the Company had finally de- 
termined to sustain Stuyvesant. Herein, however, 
they had their own axe to grind. After fervid 
utterances of loyalty to the Company and to the 
States-General, they demanded many new privileges. 
Among them was the exclusive right to bring into 
the province free of duty, negroes and goods of any 
kind.' Hempstead sent a similar address, certified 
by " John Moore, Clergyman of the Church of 
Heemstede." 

' In 1650, the Council at Nieuw Amsterdam wrote to the West 
India Company, " There is not a man in Nieuw Nederlandt who 
does not believe the duty is the cause of the intolerable scarcity and 
disorder and want of population there." 



REVOLT AT HEMPSTEAD. 2/1 

Captain John Underbill, once leader of the Dutch 
forces, was now, in 1653, active against them. He 
had charged Tienhoven with conspiracy ' and assert- 
ed the existence of a plot to turn the Indians against 
the English. Underhill was arrested and taken to 
Fort Amsterdam, but dismissed without a trial. 
Returning to Long Island, he awakened and organ- 
ised the slumbering spirit of revolt, and was hence- 
forth the unceasing foe of the Dutch. He raised 
the Parliamentary flag at Hempstead and issued an 
address against the " iniquitous government of Peter 
Stuyvesant," which he called "A great autocracy 
and tyranny, too grievous for any good Englishman 
or brave Christian to tolerate." Thirteen specifica- 
tions, equally bold and groundless, were made, while 
he entreated the people to " accept and submit to 
ye then Parliament of England," and to " beware of 
becoming traitors to one another for the sake of 
your own quiet and welfare." 

Underhill was ordered to leave the Province. 
Crossing the Sound, he offered his services to Con- 
necticut, " to save English blood and vindicate the 
rights of England." The"' double renegade was not 
welcomed by the United Colonies, but the Provi- 
dence Plantations gave him a commission to cruise 
against the Dutch. Under this authority, he went 
up the Connecticut a month later and took posses- 
sion of the unoccupied Huys van Hoop "by virtue 
of ye said Commission and according to Act of Par- 

' About this time, Augustyn Hermans says of Tienhoven, " that 
infernal firebrand {blase-geisi) has returned here and put the country 
in a blaze." 



2/2 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

Hament and with permission from ye Generall Court 
of Hartford," seizing it as belonging to the " Ene- 
mies of the Commonwealth of England." This 
land he sold to Ralph Earle of Rhode Island and to 
Richard Lord of Hartford, giving to each a deed. 
Stuyvesant sent to inquire into the truth of the 
transaction, and received from Governor Eaton a 
copy of the proclamation. 

Stuyvesant had advised the settling of some Eng- 
lish families in Flushing, but early in November the 
Council in Amsterdam wrote him : " We take a dif- 
ferent view, for the Inhabitants of Hempstead and 
Flushing have not only not prevented the raising of 
the Parliament's flag by some English freebooters, 
but have also permitted it to be done, an example 
which induces us not to trust to any of that nation 
residing within our jurisdiction. The emigrating 
and having favours granted them must henceforth 
be restricted that we may not nourish serpents in 
our bosom which finally might devour our heart." 

The discontent increased on Long Island, the 
people suffered much from attacks of the Indians, 
and of the pirates, who not infrequently approached 
the shore. Feeling that Stuyvesant did not sufifi- 
ciently provide for their protection, they finally took 
affairs in their own hands. Delegates from Graves- 
end, Middelburgh, and Heemstede met at Flushing, 
and entered into communication with the govern- 
ment. A meeting was held at the Stadt Huys in 
Nieuw Amsterdam the next day, November 27, 
1653, to discuss plans for relief. It was then decided 
by the Long Island men that if the Director-General, 



AT THE STADT BUYS. 273 

acting for the privileged West India Company, 
would not protect them, they must seek safety in 
their own determination : " We are compelled to 
provide against our own ruin and destruction, and 
therefore will pay no more taxes." They were will- 
ing to unite with Burgomasters and Schepens in 
measures for the common weal, but if they held back 
they should then " enter into firm union among 
ourselves on Long Island, for the Director-General 
affords us no protection." Baxter was the leading 
spirit, and strong in opposition to the government. 
Stuyvesant, to prevent the Dutch Towns being out- 
voted by the English, then determined to incorpo- 
rate Breuckelen, Amersfoordt, and Midwout, and 
thus the movement did achieve a greater political 
freedom, although not on the lines intended. 

Stuyvesant was popular, personally, among the 
English of Long Island, Two years before, Hemp- 
stead had written to Amsterdam, " We have found 
the Governor to be an honourable, upright & wise 
person of corteous demeanor toward us at all times 
and places." But, the memorial goes on to say, 
"It sorely roils our English blood that we should be 
slaves and raise cattle for Indian vagabonds. . . . 
If your Honours will not remedy this intolerable 
plague and that soon, for we dread a heavier mis- 
fortune, their barbarous and cruel insurrection, we 
must and shall be obliged though disinclined to 
abandon our dwellings and your Honours juris- 
diction." 

At a second Landtdag, or representative conven- 
tion, held at Nieuw Amsterdam, December loth, 



274 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

twenty-three delegates from the city and the Long 
Island towns came together.' A remonstrance was 
addressed to the Director-General and the Council, 
setting forth their rights and privileges to be the 
same as those of the Netherlanders. ** Not being 
conquered or subjugated, but settled here on mutual 
contract with the Lords Patroons and natives," they 
formulated their grievances, as, first, the fear of the 
establishment of arbitrary government ; new laws 
had been enacted without the knowledge of the 
people, and this " was contrary to the granted privi- 
leges of Nieuw Nederlandt and odious to every 
free-born man." The provincial government af- 
forded no protection against savages ; magistrates 
and ofificers were appointed without the consent of 
the people ; old orders, made without the knowledge 
and consent of the people, remained in force and 
were violated through ignorance : they had been 
promised patents on the strength of which large im- 
provements had been made in Midwout, but the 

' Frederick Lubbertson, ) ^^^^ Breuckelen. 

Paulus Van der Beeck, ) 

John Hicks, / ^^^^^ Flushing. 

Tobias Feake, ) 

^°'^*- ^°^' I from Middelburgh. 

Thos. Hazard, ) 

William Washburn, ) ^^^^^ Hempstead. 

Tohn Seaman. ) 



} 



from Midwout. 



John Seaman, 

Elbert Elbertsen, 

Thos. Spicer, 

Thos. Swartout, J ^^.^^^^ Amersfoordt. 

Jan Stryker, ) 

George Baxter, | from Gravesend. 

James Hubbard, ) 



STUYVESANT'S OBJECTIONS. 2/5 

patents were delayed. They go on to say that they 
have " transformed with immense labour and at 
their own expense, a wilderness of woods into a few 
small villages and cultivated farms," and complain 
that large grants of land on which twenty or thirty 
families could have been established, had been given 
to favoured individuals for their private profit. 

By the feudal law of their founding it was the 
fief, and not the people, which possessed the right 
of representation, and no delegates could be recog- 
nised who did not come from the Court of the 
township. Stuyvesant, therefore, would not re- 
ceive the delegates from Midwout, Breuckelen, and 
Amersfoordt, nor give the categorical " answers " 
demanded. He resented the drafting of the Re- 
monstrance by an Englishman, George Baxter, and 
declared false the charges against himself. He 
stoutly denied the right of the people to call meet- 
ings, and ordered the Convention to disperse, or 
suffer the " pain of arbitrarie correction." He ob- 
jected to the election of magistrates " by the popu- 
lace," because " each would vote for one of his own 
stamp, the thief for a thief, the rogue, the tippler, 
the smuggler, each for a brother in iniquity that he 
might enjoy greater latitude for his own offences." 
His ultimatum was that " We derive our authority 
from God and the Company, not from a few igno- 
rant subjects, . . . and we alone can call the people 
together." 

Meanwhile piracies on sea and depredations on 
land increased. The danger from piracy became 
so great that early in 1664 it was resolved to raise 



2/6 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

a force of forty men to protect the shores of Long 
Island.' Breuckelen, Amersfoordt, and Midwout 
were especially entreated to " lend their aid at this 
critical conjuncture to further whatever may ad- 
vance the public safety." They therefore prepared 
for a general rising if invaded by the dread Pirates, 
and every third man was pledged to service as a 
minute-man. 

New England was arming against Nieuw Neder- 
landt. The disloyalty of the English Towns and the 
enmity of New England were stirred still more by a 
pamphlet written in America, but published in Lon- 
don, and denounced by the States-General as a 
" most infamous lying libel at which the devil in 
hell would have been startled." This tissue of mis- 
chievous lies was entitled The Second Part of the 
Amboyna Tragedy : or, a Faithful Account of a 
bloody, treacherous & Cruel Plot of the Dutch 
in America, purporting the Total Ruin & Murder 
of all the English Colonies in New England. The 
effect of this and similar malicious falsities was to 
draw from Cromwell a fleet of four ships for the 
reduction of " The Manhattans," and all places 
occupied by the Dutch. The vessels, commanded 

' The apportionment shows the relative population of the different 
settlements : 

From the Manhattans . . . S Middelburgh & Mespat Kill . 3 
Breuckelen, the Ferry & the Gravesend 3 



Walloon Quarter . 
Heemstede . 
Rennsselaerwyck . 
Beverwyck 
Staaten Island . 



4 Vlissingen 2 

4 Amersfoordt 2 

4 Middelwout 2 

4 Patilus Hoeck ,....! 



3 



CROMWELVS FLEET. 2/7 

by Major Robert Sedgwick and Captain John 
Leveret, were under orders February 27, 1654, to 
sail to some New England port, and there to com- 
municate the purpose of the Lord Protector to the 
Governors of the Colonies of Connecticut, Massa- 
chusetts, and Plymouth, who were to be urged to 
aid the expedition and to furnish land forces for its 
furtherance. 

The fleet reached Boston in June, and by the end 
of the month a troop of three hundred horse was 
ready to march. Nieuw Nederlandt learned her 
danger from the Pilgrim, Isaac Allerton, a frequent 
visitor at Nieuw Amsterdam, and an anxious session 
of the Council was held. The Director-General had 
little hope of help from his people. He feared the 
open desertion of the English Towns, while " to in- 
vite them to assist us would be to bring the Trojan 
horse within our walls." Even the Dutch were not 
to be depended on in the alarm of a sudden attack, 
and they were almost destitute of arms and ammu- 
nition. Never a darker outlook. But the indom- 
itable Stuyvesant inspired the people with something 
of his own spirit. A loan was proposed to repair 
and arm the Fort. Money was pledged and every 
man worked with spade and axe. 

The invading fleet was unfurling its sails to the 
summer breeze and about weighing anchor to sail 
to Nieuw Amsterdam, when an English merchant 
ship entered Boston Harbour with the news of the 
Peace between England and Holland, concluded 
April 15, 1654. The danger was averted, and a brief 
respite given the doomed government.. 



2/8 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

Gravesend was the headquarters of the malcon- 
tents, who were led, as usual, by George Baxter and 
Sergeant Hubbard. Baxter had returned to Graves- 
end early in the spring of 1655, announcing that the 
English fleet, victorious at Acadia, was under orders 
from Cromwell to take Long Island from the Dutch 
before the first of May. The English flag was raised 
March 9th, and Baxter read this declaration : 

" We, individuals of the English nation here 
present, do for divers reasons and motives, claim 
and assume to ourselves as free-born British sub- 
jects, the laws of our nation and Republic of Eng- 
land, over the place as to our persons and properties 
in love and harmony according to the general peace 
between the two states in Europe and this country. 
God Almighty preserve the Republic of England, 
the Lord Protector and also the continuance of 
peace between the two countries. Amen." 

Baxter and Hubbard were arrested and imprisoned 
in Fort Amsterdam for a year. The people were too 
excited for a quiet election to take place, and the 
Sheriff and Deborah, Lady Moody, " oldest and 
first of the inhabitants," were empowered to nomi- 
nate the new magistrates. By the petition of Sir 
Henry Moody, Hubbard was then set free, and Bax- 
ter released on bail, which he forfeited. Gravesend, 
meaning to lead in any hostile movement, issued 
letters of marque on her own authority, and entered 
into secret communication with Boston. The affairs 
of the town were placed in the hands of a committee 
of twelve men, who appointed all officers, disregarding 
the Director-General's right to confirm nominations. 



CORRESPONDENCE WITH CROMWELL. 279 

Peace had been concluded between England and 
Holland, but neither country had much faith in its 
continuance. Disputes and " rumours of wars " pre- 
vailed. As the shock of the Lisbon Earthquake, a 
century later, stirred the waters of Huron and Supe- 
rior, so now, the throes of civil war in England, and 
the convulsions of Central Europe, not altogether 
quieted by the Treaty of Westphalia, had reached 
America with their reflex influence. In May, 1656, 
the West India Company ordered Stuyvesant to 
build a fort at Oyster Bay. The next year Gravesend 
addressed a memorial to Cromwell, begging to be 
taken under his protection. This recalled attention 
to " The English rights to the Northern parts of 
America," and the English Towns were advised to 
be " very cautious of betraying the rights of their 
nation, by subjecting themselves to a foreign na- 
tion." Cromwell replied in a letter addressed to 
" The English well-afTccted Inhabitants on Long 
Island in America." This letter the Magistrates 
declined to receive until they had consulted Stuyve- 
sant. The English in the neighbouring villages 
called a meeting at Jamaica to " Agetate." Baxter 
again wrote to the Great Protector, even then in the 
shadow of death, to complain of the wrongs and in- 
juries which we receive here from those in authority 
over us." His messenger, James Grover, who had 
helped to raise the English flag at Gravesend, was 
arrested and taken to Nieuw Amsterdam. Stuyve- 
sant sent the letter unopened to the Amsterdam 
Chamber. 
■ About this time an official statement of the case, 



28o EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

from the Dutch point of view, was pubh'shed in 
A Memoir of English EncroacJwients on Nieiiw Neder- 
la?idt, drawn up from " divers Letters and Docu- 
ments." ' It says : 

" Long Island which is encompassed southwardly 
by the great Ocean and northwardly by the East 
River and is about thirty leagues in length, was be- 
fore the English had any pretensions, or had ever 
made any claim to it, taken possession of by the 
Dutch by planting the villages of Amersfoordt, 
Heemstede, Vlackbosh, Gravesend and Breuckelen 
with a goodly number of bouweries and plantations, 
the inhabitants whereof are all subjects to and vas- 
sals of their High Mightinesses and of the Company. 

" Notwithstanding which the island has not re- 
mained free from unseemly usurpations. This usur- 
pation is mixed with the greatest contumely and 
contempt in the world." (Here follows an account 
of the tearing down of the Prince of Orange's Arms 
at 'T Schout's Baie.) " The English of New Haven, 
called by the Dutch of olden times Roodenburgh, 
have planted two little villages named Southold and 
Southhampton, In the like manner, in the Krom- 
megou which is our inland sea, they have usurped 
what is called Garnaet's Island which belongs 
to Long Island and is convenient for the Cod- 
fishery." 

The Restoration did not help matters for the 
Dutch. Although in the treaty of 1654 Cromwell 
acknowledged their right to Nieuw Nederlandt, her 

'^'^^e. Hollattd Documents, No. vii., in New York Colonial Docu 
ments, vol. i., p. 565. 



MORTGAGED TO CONNECTICUT MEN. 28 1 

neighbours on the north of the Sound gave Httle 
heed to that distant diplomatic utterance, nor did 
the Court concern itself to make good the promises 
of a rebel government. The English declared it im- 
possible to enforce the new Navigation Act while 
Nieuw Nederlandt lay between New England and 
Virginia and carried on an illicit trade which yearly 
" defrauded " the King's Customs of ten thousand 
pounds. The Navigation Act, so potent in its after 
influences, was primarily aimed at the destruction of 
Dutch commerce. " It would be evaded, and could 
not be enforced in America so long as New Nether- 
land existed as a Dutch plantation." ' 

The prince also, who came to his own, resolved to 
make up for years of penury, regarded Nieuw Neder- 
landt as fair prey and a legitimate provision for his 
brother. In carrying out Charles's intention to 
seize the province, Clarendon, in February, 1664, 
bought for James, Lord Sterling's interest in Long 
Island for ;^35,ooo. But Connecticut, on the receipt 
of her charter in 1662, had asserted a claim to Long 
Island, the Sterling grant to which had been already 
mortgaged to some of her citizens,^ and named a 

^ Brodhead's History of N'ew York, vol. ii., p. 13. 

^ July 29, 1641, James Farret, "to provide as he may for that 
part of Long Island not possessed, nor, as he conceiveth, claimed by 
the Dutch," gave a deed thereof to George Fenwick of Saybrook, 
Edwin Hopkins of Hartford, Theophilus Eaton and Steven Good- 
year of New Haven for £,\o and charges, in default of such payment 
within three years, the title of the Island to rest in the mortgages. — 
Colonial Records of Connecticut, vol. ii., p. 93. 

Captain John Scott later testified that Mr. Eaton said : " He and 
another gentleman layd out money on the mortgage of Long Island, 
but he did it for the good of the country," 



282 



EARLY LONG ISLAND. 



Commission ' to go to Long Island and there estab- 
lish her government. Two men were appointed 
from all but the Five Dutch Towns, to help them 
administer the Freeman's oath, and to act as magis- 
trates.^ 

The General Court of Hartford, October 23, 1662, 
declared the Long Island Towns annexed to Con- 
necticut, and ordered them to send representatives 
to the General Assembly in the following May. 
Stuyvesant pronounced this the " unrighteous, stub- 
born, impudent and pertinacious proceeding of the 
English at Hartford," and declared the English 
troops and the English residents on Long Island to 

1 Mr. Math Alleyn, 
Mr. Wyllys, 
Capt. Young. 

2 Richard Woodhull, 
John Ketchum, 
Robert Seeley, 
Jonas Wood, 
John Mulford, 
Robert Bond, 
Thurston Raynor, 
John Howell, 
Barnabas Horton, 
John Youngs, 
John Hicks, 
Ri. Gildersleeve, 
Robert Coe, 
Thos. Benedict, 
William Hallet, 
William Noble, 
John Richbell, 
Robt. Firman, 
James Hubbard, 
Wm. Wilkins, 



on. 



>• of Setauket. 
>• of Huntingt 
[■ of Easthampton 
f- of Southampton 

V of Southold. 

j- of Hempstead. 
[• of Jamaica, 
■j of Newtown. 
■j of Oyster Bay. 

V of Gravesend. " 



APPEAL TO HARTFORD. 283 

be " our most bitter enemies." When the news of 
the Hartford action reached Southold, John Youngs 
wrote to the other English villages, a letter begin- 
ning, " Whereas it has pleased his Majesty to involve 
Long Island within the Connecticut patten," in 
which he forbade them taking the oath of allegiance 
to any other authority. 

In a letter to the Amsterdam Chamber, January 
8, 1663, Stuyvesant earnestly called the attention of 
the Directors to this " Annexation," but with no re- 
sult. In the fall, " Jemaco, Middelburrow and 
Heemstede " addressed a Memorial to the General 
Court at Hartford, beseeching the Court " to cast 
over them the skirts of their Government to protect 
them in their bondage." The bearer of the Petition, 
Sergeant Hubbard, also begged that a force be sent 
to at once reduce the Dutch Towns. One Richard 
Panton, with a body of armed men, did thus enter 
Midwout. Revolution was imminent. Commis- 
sioners from Nieuw Amsterdam were sent to Hart- 
ford demanding an explanation. Connecticut replied, 
" We know of no Nieuw Nedderlandt unless you can 
show us a patent from his Majesty." The letter 
was addressed by the Secretary of the Court to 
" The Director-General at the Manacos." The 
Dutch persisted in the claim of their High Mighti- 
nesses by the same argument as heretofore, and a 
compromise was finally arranged by which Connec- 
ticut agreed to assert no authority over the English 
Towns of Western Long Island, provided that the 
Dutch also would not interfere. 

Stuyvesant then called a " Landt's yergaderung " 



284 EARL Y LONG ISLAND. 

at Nieuw Amsterdam to consider the state of the 
country. The meeting took place November 2, 
1663. It addressed to the Amsterdam Chamber an 
earnest remonstrance against the Directors' lack of 
interest, to which they referred the present condi- 
tion of affairs. But nothing decisive was done, and 
almost immediately after, Jamaica held a meeting to 
" concert measures of relief against the oppression 
of the Governor and Council." 

The smothered feeling was now bursting into 
flames. Anthony Waters of Hempstead, and John 
Coe of Middelburgh, with a body of seventy or 
eighty men, visited the various English villages, pro- 
claiming King Charles, and giving new names to the 
towns.' Stuyvesant sent a few troops under De 
Sille to protect the Dutch Towns, and wrote to 
Hartford accepting the terms his agents had refused. 
It was the virtual surrender by Nieuw Nederlandt 
of the larger part of her domain on Long Island. 

Captain John Scott now appeared upon the scene, 
he of whom it was said, that "he was born to work 
mischief as far as he is credited, or his parts serve 
him." His father had been a zealous ofificer of his 
King during the Civil War. The son was taken 
prisoner by the Parliamentary troops and banished 
to New England. After the Restoration, he re- 
turned to England petitioning the King to be made 
Governor of Long Island. Charles, disposed, to 
favour him, referred the request to the Committee 
on Foreign Plantations to learn if the Island was 

' Flushing was called Newark (often. New-Wark) ; Middelburgh, 
Hastings; Jamaica, Crawford (or Craflard); Oyster Bay, Fole stone. 



A COMBINATION. 285 

covered by earlier grants. This gave Scott the op- 
portunity to complain of the Dutch "intrusions" 
and of their interference with the workings of the 
Navigation Act. The Committee then appointed 
him, with Mr. Maverick and George Baxter, to ex- 
amine his Majesty's title to the lands, the extent of 
the aforesaid " intrusions," the character of the 
Dutch Government, and, if necessary, to use force to 
expel the Dutch. Returning to America in the fate- 
ful fall of 1663, he was further commissioned with 
Messrs. Talcott, Young, and Woodall to incorporate 
Long Island with Connecticut. 

The English at the west of the Island, were now 
really under neither Nieuw Nederlandt nor Connecti- 
cut ; they had protection from neither and were dis- 
pleased that Connecticut made no more definite 
promises of aid and good fellowship. Scott was 
then at Ashford, in Brookhaven, and was asked in 
the subjoined letter to come and settle affairs : 

" Dec. 13. 

" Dear Sir : In behalf of sum lOOs of English heer 
planted on the West End of Long Island, wee ad- 
dress ourselves unto you. The business is that wee 
were put uppon proclaiming the King by Capt. J. 
Youngs who came with a trumpet to Hemstede 
and sounded in our ears that Coneticot would do 
great things for vs, which has put vs to greate trouble 
and extreamely divided vs. Wee beseache you noble 
Sir, come and settle vs. Wee beseache you, think of 
our Condition. The Dutch threaten vs, our neigh- 
bours abvse us & nothing from Coneticot, but if so 
bees and doubtings, & yet at first they sayd wee ware 



286 EARL Y LONG ISLAND. 

part of thaire Patent & yf this our case which wee 
intreate you to consider in hope of which wee sub- 
scribe ourselves. 

" Yours ever to be commanded, in behalf of many 
distressed." ' 

On Scott's coming, when asked what disposition 
was to be made of Long Island, they were told that 
his Majesty had already given it to the Duke of 
York who would soon announce his intentions. 
Hempstead, Newark, Hastings, Crawford, and Fole- 
stone then formed "A Combination to manage their 
own affairs without the aid of Connecticut, to elect 
their own ofificers, to draw up a code of laws," and 
further, "to fully impower the said Captain John 
Scott to act as their President until his Majesty 
should establish a government among them."'' 

'Office of the Secretary of State, Hartford; Towns and Lands, 
vol. i., p. 21. 

" Agreement betiveen J^ohn Scott and Governor Stuyvesant. 

[Records in the Department of State, Albany.'\ 

Whereas, January 4th, 1663-4, After a full debate between John 
Scott, Esq., President of the English of ye townes of Gravesend, 
Ffolstone, Hastings, Crafford, Newwark and Hempsted, in 
ye audience and by ye free consent off ye greater part of ye sayd in- 
habitants, who declared yt it was ye minds off all their neighbours, 
that the sayd John Scott should agitate and treat wth ye Governor 
Stuyvesant or his Councell, in ye premised capacity, which being ac- 
cordingly effected, articles of agreement were drawn between ye sayd 
John Scott in his publike capacity, and Captain John Young, who 
averred yt it was the desire of Conneticut to accomodate such a 
settlement, as was agreed vpon between ye English off ye townes 
above sayd, in relation to tlie Royalties off ye King off England, and 
the maintenance off his sayd Maiesties late disposal to his Royall 
Highnesse James Duke off Yorke and Albany, Earle of Vlster, Lord 
High Admirall off England ; and the sayd lord Stuyvesant and 
Councell, having met John Scott aforesayd according to agreement, 



A COMBINATION. 28/ 

They then proclaimed Charles II. as their " dreade 
Sovereign " and Captain Scott with a force of one 
hundred and fifty men set out to reduce the Dutch 
Towns to allegiance. 

notwithstanding some petty iregularity transacted in ye sayd townes, 
it is determined betweene John Scott, Esquire, according tb the 
premised agreement in the name off ye King of England, Charles 
ye second, our dread Sovereign, and off His Royall Highnesse 
ye Duke off York, as far as His Highnesse is therein concerned, and 
ffor ye preservation off ye good people off ye townes aforesayd, his 
Maiesties good subiects and ye maintenance of the articles betwixt 
England and Holland, and Ifor the prevention off ye effesusion off 
blood, yt the English off Hemstead, Newwark, Crafford, Hastings, 
Ffolestone and Gravesend, and any other English on the sayd Long 
Island, shall bee and remain according to their sayd settlement, 
vnder the King off England, without lett or molestation from the 
Governor Stuyvesant and Councell, in ye name off our Lords the 
States Generall, and the Bewint Hebbers for the space of Twelve 
months, and long (viz.) vntill his Maiestie off England and the States 
Generall doe ffully determine the whole difference about the sayd 
Island and the places adiacent, and that till then the sayd people his 
Maiesties good subiects and his Royalties bee not invaded, but have 
free egresse and regresse to ye Manhatans, (alias) New Amsterdam, 
and all other places wholly possessed by the Dutch, according to the 
fformer articles off January ye 4th, 1663, and that the Dutch shall 
have free egresse and regresse in all or any off ye sayd towns, either 
in negotiation or administration of iustice, according to the laws off 
England, without any respect to persons or Nations, and that 
ye Dutch towns or bouweries shall remain under ye States Generall 
ye aforesaid term. His Maiesties Royalties excepted ; and that the 
sayd John Scott, nor any by him, shall molest in his Maiesties name 
ye sayd Dutch towns. 

To the performance off ye premises in publicke capacity, the 
parties to these presents have enterchangably set to their hands and 
seals, this twentie fourth of Ffebr. An" 1663-4. In the sixteenth 
year of his Maiesties reign King, &c. Jo. Scott. 

Witnesse, John Vnderhill, O. Stevens V. Cortlandt, 
David Denton, J. Backer, 

Adam Mott, John Lawrence, 



288 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

His raid did not shake their loyalty; Nieuw 
Utrecht boldly refused to recognise the king, al- 
though the English were in possession of the Block 
House. Scott made himself very obnoxious to the 
people of Long Island. A letter to Stuyvesant 
from the Delegates of The Five Towns, speaks of 
the " pretended Captain John Scott and his attendant 
mob who threatened to pursue us with fire and 
sword, yea, to run through whoever will say we are 
not seated on King's ground." His appearance at 
the Ferry, in Breuckelen, January ii, 1664, is de- 
scribed as being with " a troup of Englishmen 
mounted on horseback with great noise marching 
with sounding trumpets so that the Attestants knew 
not how they were to fare, and mounted the English 
flag." Even Mr. Allyn, the Secretary at Hartford, 
a year later, writes: "Wee are informed that Mr. 
John Scott according to his wonted course is agayne 
makeing disturbance among the people of Setawkett 
by labouring to deprive the people of that place of 
the land expedient for their subsistance." 

In Nieuw Amsterdam it was held that the West 
India Company was responsible for the disorder on 
Long Island, inasmuch as none of the revenue of the 
province had been used in its defence. But when 
the Company received the dispatches of November, 
1663, they demanded from the States-General, help 
against Connecticut, a confirmation of their Charter, 
a mandatory letter to the Long Island towns, and 
a definite adjustment with the King of England. 
They forced compliance, and the necessary orders 
were given, January 23, 1664. Had all this been 



THE HEMPSTEAD MEETING. 289 

done five years earlier, the Dutch could have kept 
Nieuw Nederlandt, and a different history have been 
written upon the fair Island, the cause of contention. 
Their Ambassadors at London were directed to 
insist that the English stand by the Hartford Treaty 
of 1650. But the States-General did not rightly 
measure the value of the disputed province, while 
in matters of state policy the Binnenhof was no 
match for Whitehall. An act under the Great Seal 
declared the West India Company authorised to 
plant colonies in any unoccupied part of the New 
World from Newfoundland to the Straits of Magel- 
lan. Letters were also sent to the various towns 
charging them to hold their allegiance until the 
boundary question was settled with England. 

March 3, 1664, a meeting was held at Hempstead, 
from the earliest settlement a centre of political 
influence. Stuyvesant and his associates, the Bur- 
gomaster van Cortlandt Jacobus Backer and John 
Lawrence met John Scott and the deputies of the 
English Towns, who were Captain John Underbill, 
Daniel Denton, and Adam Mott. It was then 
asrreed that neither Connecticut nor Nieuw Neder- 
landt should exercise jurisdiction over the disputed 
territory of Long Island and Westchester, for twelve 
months, until the King and the States-General 
*' could settle the whole difficulty about the Island 
and the places adjacent." 

Many of the English tried to cut the Gordian 
knot by moving farther westward, although not be- 
yond the acknowledged limits of Nieuw Neder- 
landt. In 1664, John Bailey, Daniel Denton, and 
19 



290 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

Luke Watson, freemen of Jamaica, bought from the 
Indians the lands including the site of Elizabeths 
New Jersey. Samuel Smith, the venerable historian 
of Nova Cicsarca, wrote that " About tliis time 
there was a great resort of industrious farmers, the 
English inhabitants of the west end of Long Island 
who almost generally removed to settle hither, and 
most of them fixed about Middletown from whence 
by degrees they extended their settlements to Free- 
hold and thereabouts." In 1682, Jacques Cortelyou 
and partners owned the greater part of the land on 
which Newark has been built. The entire eastern 
part of New Jersey, from the Hackensack River to 
Cape May, was settled chiefly from Long Island. 

Nieuw Nederlandt was much alarmed by the un- 
certain action of the Hempstead Meeting, and 
greatly feared lest she lose Long Island, the " Pearl 
of the Province," Thereupon the Schout, Burgo- 
masters, and Schepens of Nieuw Amsterdam de- 
manded another Landtdag. It was held on April 
10, 1664, and attended by two delegates from every 
one of the Dutch Towns.' It called upon the 
Government to protect them from the *' malignant 
English," to which appeal Stuyvesant replied that 

> Willem Bredenbent l Breuckelen, 

Albert Cornelis '\^ antenaar ) 

|an Strvker \ -wa •. 

• . • . >• Midwout 

AVillem Guillems ) 

Elberc Elbertseu Umersfoordt 

Coert Stevensen J 

David Jochemsen ) ^^j^^^ Utrecht 

Cornelis Beeckman ) 

Jan van Clef ) t. 1 

■' \ boswyck. 

Gysbert Teunissen Bogaert ) 



"IN TERMINIS." 291 

he had already exceeded his powers, and that he had 
not been sustained by the people. This Assembly, 
also, dissolved without doing anything to avert the 
impending fate. The matter resolved itself into 
this : the States-General would not commit them- 
selves to the protection and defence of their colonies 
in America/ and the West India Company would 
not risk money in a now doubtful enterprise. 

On May 22d, Hartford sent Mr. Allyn to meet the 
delegates of the English Towns at Hempstead, and 
to accept them as in the Government of Connecti- 
cut, " claiming Long Island as one of the adjacent 
Islands named in their Charter." On June loth, 
Stuyvesant wrote to the Amsterdam Chamber: 

" On Long Island, matters are in Tcrininis. The 
five Dutch villages with their dependencies continue 
to remain so far under your jurisdiction and govern- 
ment — God knows how long, but the five English 
villages, Gravesend, Heemstede which is half Eng- 
lish, half Dutch, Vlusshing, Rustdorp and Middel- 
burg, where names and magistrates were changed, 
remain in revolt. . . . We were informed yes- 
terday by Captain Thomas Willet, Mr. John Law- 
rence and other well-affected Englishmen, that the 
letters of their High Mightinesses made no impres- 
sion on the General Court at Hartford." (They were 
believed to be forgeries.) Stuyvesant continued : 
" The last General Court at Hartford has therefore 
resolved and decreed to reduce the whole of Long 

' A fortnight later, Stuyvesant wrote again to the Directors for 
" means to preserve the Dutch rule on Long Island, and to keep off 
the rebellious troops of John Scott." 



292 EAKLY LONG ISLAND. 

Island and to establish their government there. 
Vou can easily judi^e what will be the fate of the 
remaining- part of Nieuw Nederlandt if this should 
happen, if the English subdued Long Island, the 
key to the North River." The entire correspond- 
ence between Stuyvesant and the Directors shows 
that he foresaw the end, and that he received no 
support from the Compan)-. 

Finally, in June, Governor John Winthrop, whom 
O'Callaghan declares *' was head and front of the 
opposition to the Dutch, experienced on Long 
Island," and the Hartford deputies visited Hemp- 
stead, deposed the magistrate selected under Scott's 
pseudo-presidency, and promised their help against 
anv resistance to the rule of Connecticut. 



XIII. 



THE ENGLISH CONQUEST AND ORGANISATION. 



WHILE all influences and action on this side 
the Atlantic were converging toward the 
end, on March 22, 1664, Charles II. gave 
to the Duke of York a Patent including the territory 
of the Nieuw Nederlandt. It embraced " all that 
part of the INIainland of New-England beginning at 
a certain place called or known by the name of St. 
Croix, next adjoining New Scotland in America. 
. . . Also, that island or islands commonly called 
by the several name or names of Meitowacks, or 
Long-island, situate and being toward the west of 
Cape Cod and the Narrow Higansetts, abutting upon 
the main land between the two rivers there called or 
known by the several names of Connecticut and 
Hudson River." 

A month later, Colonel Nicoll, Sir Robert Carr, 
Colonel George Cartwright, and Samuel Maverick of 
Massachusetts were appointed commissioners to ex- 
amine the state of New England. In Clarendon's 
draft of the King's private instructions they were 
assured that " A great end of the design is the pes- 

« 

293 



294 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

session of Long Island and reducing the people to 
an entire submission to us and our government, now 
vested by our Grant and commission in our brother, 
the Duke of York." 

James was impatient to enjoy the revenues of his 
new domain, estimated at thirty thousand pounds, 
and plans were quickly made to take possession of 
the countr}\ Colonel Richard Nicoll,^ a devoted 
Royalist who had served with James under Turenne, 
was commander of the fleet prepared.^ It sailed from 
Portsmouth, May 15th, and the vessels were ordered 
to meet in Gardiner's Bay. Nicoll, on the Guinea, 
reached Boston after a long voyage, and wrote to 
Winthrop demanding the help of Connecticut. 
Finally, the fleet anchored in Nayack Bay, between 
Nieuw Utrecht and Coney Island, August iSth. 
There, Colonel Nicoll gave license to Mr. John Coe 
and INIr. Elias Walls " to have full libertie to beat 
their drums for the end and purpose " of recruiting 
soldiers on Long Island to serve against the Dutch. 

* Nicoll had left Oxford, where he had already distinguished him- 
self, to join the King's forces. He fought throughout the Civil 
Wars, and there followed the fortunes of the royal family. His e.\- 
perience on the Continent as a free lance had placed him under such 
commanders as Don John of Austria, the Prince of Conde, and Mar- 
shall Turenne. 

* The fleet consisted of four vessels manned by four hundred and 
fifty soldiers : 

The Guinea, with thirty-six guns ; 
The Elias, with thirty guns ; 
The Martin, with sixteen guns ; 
The IVilliam and JVicholas, with ten guns. 
Mr. Brodhead gives the name of the flag-ship as the Guinea. 
Several others write the Gurnev. 



NICOLL'S FLEET. 295 

On August 25th, two of the ships hiiided their 
troops at Gravesend. The inhabitants of Long 
Island were summoned thither to meet the Royal 
Commission. Winthrop and Wyllys were also pres- 
ent. Nicoll announced the Duke's Patent and called 
for the submission of Long Island to his authority, 
but offered to the people all the privileges of loyal 
subjects. To the Eastern Towns which had been 
annexed to Connecticut, Winthrop declared that its 
jurisdiction now "ceased and became null." 

The troops then marched in scarlet array to the 
ferry at Breuckelen, where they were met by volun- 
teers from Long Island ' and from New England. 
The other ships meanwhile sailed up the beautiful 
bay, where seals still basked on the rocks of Robyn's 
Rift ' and tall trees waved on Poggank, to anchor 
near the city. 

The end had come. " Long Island is gone and 
lost," sorrowfully wrote Stuyvesant on the night of 
the 22d, as he once more addressed the West India 
Company on " the Perilous and Alarming situation." 
The ultimatum had been offered, its acceptance 
forced upon the Director-General by his faint- 
hearted subordinates, the prudent burghers angry 
at the continued indifference of the Company, choos- 
ing the generous terms of Nicoll, rather than risk 
the storming of their town. The Articles of Capit- 
ulation were signed August 27th, at Stuyvesant's 
Bouwerie. The city was given up on August 29th. 

' A body of militia had come from the Eastern Towns, under 
Captain John Youngs. 
^ The Seals' Place, now Robbins' Reef. 



296 EARLY LOXG ISLAXD. 

Nieuw Nederlandt was no more. Long Island was 
for the first time under one government, and that 
not of its original discoverers or planters. 

England was tardily ashamed of this lawless cap- 
ture in time of peace, and has often attempted to 
disown any responsibility therein. But a letter to 
The Hague from the Dutch Ambassador in London, 
under date of November 7. 1664, distinctly says that 
the King in a recent audience granted him, " de- 
clared in round and positive terms that the capture 
of Nieuw Nederlandt was done with his knowledge 
and consent." 

The passing of Nieuw Nederlandt from Dutch to 
English ownership was only a question of time. For 
twenty-five years all events had trended toward such 
an end, but the grant to the Duke of York and the 
orders for its seizure were disgraceful to England. 
In a discussion thereon between Sir George Downing 
and the Dutch ^Minister, the former said : " So far 
from the aflfair of New Netherland being a surprise, 
this tract of countrv is situate within the New Eng- 
land patent : the Dutch resided there onK- by con- 
nivance and precariously ; that such permission had 
been signified to them from year to year upon cer- 
tain conditions, and that thev had drawn this visi- 
tation upon themselves by their aggressions and 
provocations." To which arrogant defence, it was 
replied that " w ere those incursions and provoca- 
tions to be enumerated and described, they would 
be found on par with that whereof the Wolf accused 
the Lamb, viz. : of having muddied the water, al- 
though she drank at the lower end of the stream." 



PIETER STUYVESANT, 2gy 

In the troublous times of the past ten )-eais, Picter 
Stuyvesant was among the leaders, the only hero. 
He was of a fiery, irascible type, ardent in love 
of country and in zeal for its interests, but lacking 
in self-control and in any conception of a broad 
statesmanship. Egbert lienson, however, well said 
of him : " In fine, the whole of his duties and 
character being considered, it may be questioned 
whether the chief magistracy among us has ever 
been confided to a person of greater worth." He 
went to Holland in the next spring to render his 
account to the West India Company. He begins 
his statement by saying that " sustained by the 
tranquillity of an upright and loyal heart, he was 
moved to abandon all, even his most beloved wnfe, 
to inform their most illustrious Highnesses of the 
true state of the case." He says that when he 
assumed the government, "the Vlacktelandt was 
stripped of its inhabitants to such a degree that 
with the exception of the three English villages of 
Heemstede, New Flushing and Gravesend, there 
were not fifty bouweries or plantations, and the 
whole province could not muster 250, or at most, 
300 men capable of bearing arms." Resistance was 
a forlorn hope in a state few in numbers and waver- 
ing in allegiance. The Company, in their comment 
upon this report, presented to the States-General, 
emphasise the fact that in Stuyvesant's administra- 
tion " the country was brought from a little colony 
to a rising Republic," but they do not justify its 
surrender, and try to prove his reasons of no 
weight. 



298 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

When two years later, in the Treaty of Breda, the 
Company formally gave up Nieuw Nederlandt to 
England, Stuyvesant returned to New York. There, 
for a few years, he lived a quiet country life on his 
" outlying farm," now far down town, and he is 
buried thereon in a vault beneath the little chapel 
he had built. This St.-Marks-in-the-Fields was re- 
placed in 1802 by the present St, Mark's Church, on 
whose eastern foundation wall is inserted the burial 

stone thus inscribed : 

/ 

" In this vault lies buried 

Petrus Stuyvesant 

I.ate Captain-General and Commander-in-Chief of Amsterdam 

in New Netherland now called New York 

& the Dutch West India Islands : died in Feb, 167^ 

Aged 80 years." 

No political freedom, the illusion of the New 
England immigrants, was gained by the English 
Conquest. The Court of Assize, to which was 
given " supreme power of making, altering and 
abolishing any laws of New York," was no demo- 
cratic assembly. To this Court came at its yearly 
meetings, besides the Governor and Council in 
whose hands was the entire power, the High Sheriff 
and the Justices of the lower courts, who were 
meant to be altogether subservient to the Governor. 
The condition of New York was anomalous. It had 
no charter ; it was not a royal province. As a pro- 
prietary government it in no way enjoyed the liberal 
polity of Lord Baltimore nor the beneficence which 
Penn later exercised. It was conquered territory. 



ANOMALOUS CONDITION OF NEW YORK. 299 

All power of legislation was retained by James, and 
deputed by him to his governors and to the Courts 
controlled by them. The first of these royal govern- 
ors was Colonel Nicoll, who for four years wisely 
administered the affairs of the new province in the 
best interests of the people. 

Nicoll was empowered to settle the boundary dis- 
putes with the other Colonies and an adjustment 
of the Connecticut line' was made at Fort James, 
December i, 1664. In this conference it was deter- 
mined that " Long Island is to be under the gov- 
ernment of his Royal Highness the Duke of York. 
Governor Winthrop thereupon renounced, more ex- 
plicitly than he had done at Gravesend, the claims 
of Connecticut, saying: " What they had done, had 
been for the welfare, peace and quiet settlement of 
his Majesty's subjects, as being the nearest organ- 
ised government." But now that his Majesty's 
pleasure was fully signified by his letters patent, 
their jurisdiction had ceased and become null. 

There was great need of uniform legislation and 
an established judiciary. To these details of admin- 

' Connecticut has never understood the real hold of the Dutch 
upon the territory they coveted. Even nov/, her ablest historian 
writes : " Long Island had never been more than nominally under 
the jurisdiction of the Dutch. They had planted a few farms on the 
western end, but the rest of the Island was a wilderness. — Johnson's 
Coiiftecticui, p. 136. 

Another instance of the long-standing jealousy between New York 
and New England is seen in a letter from Nicoll to Clarendon, ad- 
vising a direct trade between New York and Holland, adding that 
" the strength and flourishing condition of this place will bridle the 
Ambititious Saints of Boston." 



?00 



EARLY LONG ISLAND. 



istration, Nicoll applied himself with ardour. Early 
in February, 1665, he issued a circular-letter setting 
forth his purpose " to settle good and known laws." 
He invited the towns, every one, to send two dele- 
gates, " the most sober, able and discrete persons," 
chosen by the taxpayers in General Town Meeting. 
Thirty-four delegates ' assembled in the famous 
Hempstead Convention, February 28, 1665. The 
session lasted ten days, and then were enacted many 



' Jacques Cortelyou 

Fosse 

Elbert Elbertsen 
Roeleff Martense 
James Hubbard 
John Bowne 
Jan Stryker 
Hendrick Jorassen 
John Stealman 
Guisbert Teunis 
Daniel Denton 
Thomas Benedict 
John Hicks 
Robert Jackson 
John Underbill 
Matthias Harvey 
Jonas Wood 
John Ketchum 
Daniel Lane 
Roger Barton 
Wiibam Wells 
John Youngs 
Thomas Topping 
John Howell 
Thos. Baker 
John Stratton 
John Quinby 
Edward Jessup 



Nieuw Utrecht 



} 
f 

\ TV,- 



Nieuw Amersfoordt 



Gravesend 



Flatbasch 



Boswyck 
Jamaica 
Hempstead 
Oyster Bay 
Huntington 



) 
) 

I 

y Brookhaven 

]■ Southold 



- Southampton 



[• Easthampton 
V Westchester 



THE HEMPSTEAD CONVENTION. 30I 

of the celebrated " Duke's Laws," said to have been 
written by Lord Clarendon/ 

Nicoll opened the Convention by reading the 
Duke's Patent and his own commission. He then 
announced that he had prepared a body of laws 
similar to those in force in New England, but, "with 
abatement of severity against such as differ in mat- 
ters of conscience and of Religion." The code was 
in penalties essentially the same, but blasphemy 
and witchcraft were not included among the eleven 
capital crimes. There was provision for equal taxa- 
tion, for trial by jury ; the tenure of land was re- 
established, as held from the Duke ; all old patents 
were recalled and new ones required, the heavy fees 
for which were among the governor's chief per- 
quisites. No land purchase from the Lidians was 
to be made without his consent.^ All transactions 
with the Indians were to be conducted " as if the 
case were between Christian and Christian." No 
Indian was to be " suffered to Powow or to perform 
outward worship to the devil." 

The Church of England was not nominally estab- 

^ "The Duke's Laws" were not all passed in 1665, but were 
added to from time to time. They were first collected under that 
name in 1674. Manuscript copies of the code were placed in the 
Clerk's Office of each County v/hen that division was made. In 
many respects the code was specially adapted to Long Island, but it 
was intended for the whole Province, so soon as the people of the 
Hudson River Valley should learn the English language. The 
Dutch institutions could be changed only by slow degrees, and by 
the processes of growth. 

^ At the first Court of Assize, held in New York, in October, 1665, 
the chief sachems of Long Island came and submitted to Governor 
Nicoll. 



302 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

lished, but the laws worked to that end ; every par- 
ish was required to build and maintain a church by 
public rates. No minister was to officiate, who 
" had not received ordination from some Bishop or 
Minister " of the Anglican Church.' Prayers for 
the royal family were required ; services were to be 
held on the historic days of November fifth, January 
thirtieth, and May twenty-ninth. Minute sumptu- 
ary laws were enacted which indicate the manners 
of the time and the simple mode of life. Innkeepers 
were not allowed " to charge above 8d a meal with 
small beer." 

The delegates were not satisfied. They had un- 
derstood Nicoll's promises to mean equal freedom, 
or greater than was possessed by the New England 
colonies. They desired, especially Southold, that 
all civil officers should be chosen by the freemen, all 
military officers by the soldiers; that no magistrate 
" should have any yearly maintenance " ; that taxes 
should be imposed only with the consent of deputies 
to a General Court. The Code allowed none of 
these privileges. There was much debate over sep- 
arate articles ; many amendments were proposed, 
some of which Nicoll accepted, but, weary with 
wordy wrangling, he finally assured the delegates 
that if they wished any greater share in the govern- 
ment than his instructions allowed him to give, they 
"must go to the King for it." 

Careful attention was given to the organisation of 

^ Lord Cornbury was unjustly blamed for bigotry. The royal 
orders to the colonial government left him no other course than to 
suppress all unlicensed preachers. 



THE JUDICIAR Y. 303 

a Judiciary. The High Sheriff of Yorkshire ' was 
yearly to appoint a Deputy for each Riding. Two 
Justices, holding ofifice during the Governor's pleas- 
ure, were given every town. The towns were allowed, 
yearly, on the first day of April, to elect a constable 
and eight overseers (later, only four), " men of good 
fame and life," who were also assessors, and with the 
constables regulated the lesser affairs of the town. 
Two of the overseers were chosen to " make a rate " 
for the maintenance of the church and the clergy- 
man, and for the support of the poor. From the 
overseers the Constable selected the jurors to attend 
the Courts of Sessions and Assize. The Court of 
Assize was the highest tribunal, subordinate only to 
the Governor and the Duke. It was composed of 
the Governor, his Council, and the Magistrates of 
the several towns, meeting yearly in New York. It 
was a Court of Equity as well as of Common Law, 
holding original jurisdiction in suits of over twenty 

' At the close of the Convention, Governor Nicoll appointed Wil- 
liam Wells of Southold as High Sheriff, John Underlain as High 
Constable and Surveyor-General, and, as Justices : 

Daniel Denton of Jamaica, 

John Hicks of Hempstead, 

Jonas Wood of Huntington, 

James Hubbard of Gravesend. 
The High Sheriffs of Yorkshire, until its division into the present 
counties, in 1683, were the following : 

1665-69, William Wells, 

1669-72, Robert Coe, 

1672-75, John Manning, 

1675-76, Sylvester Salisbury, 

1676-79, Thomas Willet, 

1679-81, Richard Betts, 

16S1-83, John Youngs. 



304 EAKLY LOXG ISLAXD. 

pounds, and appellate in lesser amounts. This 
Court was finally given up, as " causing great charge 
to the Province," and because so many of the Town 
Justices were declared " not fit and capable to hear 
and determine matters of a civil nature," an asper- 
sion whose injustice needs no comment. Its last 
session was held under Sir Edmond Andros, in 
October, i6So. 

The Court of Sessions presided over by the High 
SherifT was held half-yearly in each Riding. It was 
made up of the Justices of the Peace from the sev- 
eral towns of the Riding. They were at first given 
a salary of twenty pounds, but later, only an allow- 
ance for necessarj* expenses. Its authority extended 
to civil cases over five pounds, and to criminal cases, 
decided by the major " part " of the jurors. In 
capital cases, the twelve jurors must be unanimous. 
The Duke's Laws further provided that a pillory 
should be erected wherever the Court was in session, 
while every town had its stocks. The official ex- 
penses of the town were met by a direct tax on all 
property, real and personal. The charges for the 
Ridings were fixed by the Governor and Council, 
and were usually one penny per pound. 

The Eastern Towns, clinging to the usage and 
the political ideal of the New England Colonies, pe- 
titioned the King for a representative government. 
Charles, always glad to shirk any personal responsi- 
bility, refused to interfere with the Patent to the 
Duke. Discontented with the separation from Con- 
necticut, and rebellious against the new authority, 
they refused to pay the taxes, or to elect the officers 



".^ XA/^/!.4r/F£ AXD REMOxVSTHAXCEr 305 

required by the Duke's Laws. Their dissatisfaction 
led the men who had been their delegates to the 
Hempstead Convention, to draw up "A Narrative 
and Remonstrance," which was recorded in all the 
towns, in order that " Future Ages may not be sea- 
soned with the sour malice of such unreasonable 
and groundless aspersions." 

When the renewal of the land patents was ordered, 
Southampton refused to comply. As bought and 
settled under the patent to Lord Sterling, the peo- 
ple did not consider another grant necessary. Nicoll 
might well say that " Long Island gave more trouble 
than all the Dutch." In 1670 the Court of Assize 
declared the Southampton titles invalid unless re- 
newed by the Duke's government. This decision 
was quickly followed by "The Southampton Re- 
monstrance" dated February 15, 1671. It was 
signed by fifty freeholders who refused to acknow- 
ledge James as the proprietor of the Island, and 
called the requisition for new patents " a greivance " 
which " would make them and their Posteritie Groan 
like Israel and Egypt." Nicoll appointed commis- 
sioners to confer with the town, but the difficulty 
was not adjusted for several years. 

Southold, Southampton, and Easthampton per- 
sisted in their opposition. In 1673. they presented, 
at Whitehall, a petition setting forth their " time 
and expense in establishing the whale-fishery," but 
which they could bring to no perfection until within 
two or three years past." They complained of too 
heavy taxes laid upon their industry by the Governor 
of New York ; they had " been under the govern- 



306 EARLY LOXG ISLAXD. 

ment of Mr. W'inthrop belonging to Conitycot 
patent which lyeth far more convenient for ye Peti- 
tioners assistance in ye aforesaid trade, wherefore 
humbly praying they may be continued under Mr. 
Winthrop," etc. In the final Treaty of Westminster, 
between England and Holland, in 1674, Connecticut 
once more tried to gain possession of the three 
Eastern Towns. 

While some laws of the original code were felt to 
be oppressive, Long Island objected more strongly 
to others that were made early in the administration 
of Colonel Lovelace, and determined to seek redress. 
Hempstead, Jamaica, Oyster Bay. Flushing, New- 
town, and Gravesend joined in a petition to the 
Governor, October 9. 1669. They referred to the 
proclamation of Nicoll in which it was promised 
that " they should enjoy all such privileges as his 
Majesty's other subjects in America enjoyed. " Of 
these privileges they affirmed the most important 
to be a share in making their laws " by such depu- 
ties as shall be yearly chosen by the freeholders of 
every town and parish." The petition was graciously 
received ; some minor specifications were granted, 
but no attention was given to the main point at issue. 

The people still complained bitterly that there 
was no General Assembly. They felt themselves 
disfranchised, and at the mercy of an absolute gov- 
ernment. The New England colonists had brought 
with them the principle so early enunciated in 
Easthampton. that taxation and representation are 
inseparable. When a tax to repair Fort James was 
laid on the Long Island towns, thev either refused 



DEPRIVED OF LIBERTIES OF ENGLISHMEN, ^oy 

its payment, or. coupled a reluctant submission with 
the condition that '" Privileges such as other of his 
Majesty's subjects in these parts have and do enjoy, 
may be obtained, but not otherwise." Huntington 
refused, because " deprived of the liberties of Eng- 
lishmen." Jamaica regarded the demand as the 
entering wedge for extortion " till there be no 
end," although " if it can be shown to be the King's 
absolute order," they will " with patience rest under 
the said burdens until address be made unto the 
King for relief." 

When these protests were presented to the Court 
of Sessions for the West Riding, sitting at Graves- 
end, the Court, with the Secretar}- of the Colony 
presiding, pronounced the papers to be "scanda- 
lous, illegal, seditious, tending only to disaffect all 
peaceable well-meaning subjects of his Majesty." 
The complaint was referred to the Governor and 
Council to act as would best '' tend to the sup- 
pression of false "suggestions and jealousies in 
the minds of peaceable and well-meaning subjects, 
alienating them from their duty and obedience to 
the laws." Governor Lov-elace ordered the papers 
to be publicly burned before the Town House of 
New York at the next Mayor's Court. 

Dissensions increased during the first decade of 
the English Government. The Western Towns had 
not onlv refused aid in fortifving New York, but 
were ripe for rebellion and ready to welcome back 
the Dutch rulers for whose expulsion they had pre- 
pared the way. So it was that Cornelis Evertsen 
and Jacob Benckes sailed quietly up the Bay, and 



308 EARLY LONG ISLAND, 

July 30, 1673, the standard of the United Nether- 
lands floated once more over Manhattan, and Cap- 
tain Colve issued orders from Fort Willem Hendrick. 
On September 8th, the Corporation of New Orange 
addressed the States-General, saying : " This province 
to the great joy of its good inhabitants, reduced 
again into obedience to your High Mightinesses 
and his Serene Highness, their lawful and native 
Sovereign, from whose protection they were cut off 
about nine years ago, in time of peace." They rep- 
resent " the advantage the province might be made 
to the Father-land as a home for families ruined by 
the French invasion," while it might soon become 
" a granary and magazine of many necessaries and 
special!}' important as a naval station and watch- 
tower to observe the King of England." Yet with- 
out timely reinforcements the Dutch could not hold 
their ground. 

Two weeks after the recapture of New^ York, a 
proclamation summoned every Long Island town to 
send deputies to New Orange once more to swear 
allegiance to the States-General. The Five Dutch 
Towns and Gravesend immediately and gladly 
obeyed. The towns of the North Riding were 
warned not to take up arms against the Dutch 
government, which indeed they had no wish to do. 
But the East Riding was thoroughh^ aroused against 
the new authority.' Southampton, "struck with 

' The Report of the Council of Trade on the recapture of New 
York tells the King : " It is very probable that ye English Inhabi- 
tants who possess ye East part of Long Island and are in farr 
ye greater number, have not yett submitted to ye Dutch, nor will 



RESISTANCE BY THE EAST RIDING. 309 

amazement " at the sudden turn in affairs, asked 
help from Hartford. The protest of the Eastern 
Towns against the Dutch was embodied in a memo- 
rial written at Jamaica, August 14th : 

" Whereas, wee ye Inhabitants of ye East Riding 
of Long Island : (namely Sout Hampton, East 
Hampton, Sout Iloold, Setaucok and Huntington) 
were sometime rightly and peaceaffully joyned with 
Hertford jurisdiction to good satisffaction on both 
sides, butt about ye yeare 1664 Gen'^ Richard Nicolls 
comeing in ye nam ofT his Ma''®^ Roiall Highness 
ye Duke off Yorcke, and by power subjected us to 
ye Government under w'^'^ wee have remained untill 
this present time, and now by turne of God's provi- 
dence shipps off fforce belonging to ye states of 
Holland have taken New Yorcke ye 30th of last 
month and wee haveing noe Intelligence to day 
ffrom o"" Govern"" Fra^ Lovelace Esquy"" off what 
hath happenned, or whatt wee are to doe. But ye 
General of yc said Dutch fforce hath sent to us his 
Declaration or Summons with a serious comunica- 
tion therein contained, and since wee understand bij 
ye poste bringing ye said Document that our Gov- 
ern'' is peaceably and respectfully entertained with 
ye said ffort and City, wee, ye Inhabitants off ye 
said East Ryding, or o"^ Deputies ITor us att a meet- 
ing, doe make these o"" requests as follows." 

ye enemy be in condiCon to reduce them until they have received 
new recruits from Europe. And therefore if force be speedily sent 
from hence before they have yielded themselves they will bee ready 
and in good posture to assist in ye retaking of Nev/ York." — Board 
Journals, cxxii., p. 65, November 15, 1673. 



,IO 



EARLY LONG ISLAND. 



Ten requisitions follow ; the most significant are 
quoted. 

" Imprimis, that yff wee come under ye dutch 
govern' wee desire yt wee maij retaine o"" Ecclesiasti- 
call Privileges, vis : to worship God according to 
o"^ belieffe without anij imposition. 

" 4ly, That we maij alwayes have libertie to chuse 
o"' own officers both civil and military. 

" 5ly, That these 5 Towns maij bee a corporation 
off themselves to end all matters of difference be- 
tween Man and Man, excepting onely cases con- 
cerning Lijffe and Limbe. 

" 61y, That no lawe maij bee made nor tax im- 
posed upon ye people at anij time but such as shall 
bee consented unto bij ye deputies of ye respective 
Townes. 

" 7ly That wee maij have free Trade with ye na- 
tion now in power and all others without paying 
custome. 

" Sly In everij respect to have equal previledge 
with ye dutch nation. . . . 
" East Hampton [ Thos. James 

[ John Jessup 
) Joseph Raynor 

] Thos. Hutchinson 

) Isacq Arnold Depiit. 

I Richard Woodhull 
Andrew Miller 



South Hampton 
Sovth Hoold 



Brooke Havn 

Huntington 

On August 29th Captain William Knyft, Lieu- 



I Isaq Piatt 

) Thos. Kidmore 



REPORT FROM THE WESTERN TOWNS. 3II 

tenant Jeronimus Hubert, and the Clerk, Ephraim 
Heennans, commisioned to administer the oath of 
allegiance to the Western Towns, report as fol- 
lows : 

" Midwout, 73 men all of whom took the oath. 
Amersfoordt, 48 " " " " " " " 

Breuckelen and dependencies, 81 men, 52 of whom 
took the oath ; the remainder ordered to take 
it from the Magistrates of Nieuw Utrecht. 
Nieuvv Utrecht, 41 men all of whom took the oath. 
Buswyck 35 '* " " " " " 

except Humphrey Clay who is a Quaker. 
Hemstede, 107 men, 51 men have taken the oath, 
the remainder absent and ordered as above. 
Among them are 20 Dutch. 
Rustdorp, 63 men, 53 have taken the oath, the re- 
mainder absent and ordered as above. 
Middelborg, 99 men, 53 have taken the oath, the re- 
mainder absent and ordered as above." 
At the very last of October, Colve sent Cornelis 
van Steenwyck and two other councillors. Captain 
Carel Epen Steyn and Lieutenant Carel Quirtynsen, 
along the Sound in the snow ZceJiont (the shark), 
to receive the allegiance of the Eastern Towns. 
Huntington and Brookhaven agreed to sign a pledge 
of obedience to the Dutch Governor, but refused 
any oath which might bind them to arm against the 
King of England. Southold was already in arms 
against the Dutch, and Southamptom would make 
no compromise. They at once sent messengers to 
ask Connecticut to receive them, and to aid them 
against the re-asserted rule of New Orange. The 



312 EAULY LONG ISLAND. 



General Court referred their application to a com- 
mittee authorised to receive them. The three towns 
were organised into a district with the needed civil 
and military officers. A small body of soldiers * 
under Fitz-John Winthrop" was sent to Southold, 
and more troops under Major Treat came to meet 
the Dutch force who were reported to have threat- 
ened the rebellious towns with fire and sword. 

On his arrival at Southold, Steenwyck called 
together the freeholders to announce the purpose of 
his coming. The Commissioners from Connecticut 
answered him that the "Inhabitants of Southold 
were subjects of his Majesty of England and had 
nothing to do with any orders or commission of the 
Dutch." They then addressed the people : "Who- 
ever among you will not remain faithful to his 

' The Journal of Evertsen, commander of the Zeehcnt, says there 
were " a troop of 26 or 28 men on horseback and a company of about 
60 Footmen in arms." 

-The commission to Winthrop and his associate, INIr. Wyllys, runs 
as follows : 

" Whereas by divers Reports and Informations wee are given to 
Vnderstand that there aie some Forces Expected speedily from New 
York at the eastern end of Long Island to force and Constrayne the 
People there to take the Oath of Obedience to the States General 
and the Prince of Orange, wee have thought it Expedient to desire 
and impower you Saml W^yllys Esquire and Captn John Winthrop, 
or Either of you, to take such necessary attendance as you judge 
meet, and forthwith to go over to the said Island, or to Shelter 
Island and treat with such forces as you shall there meet and doe your 
endeavour to divert them from using any hostility against the said 
People and from Imposing uppon them, letting them know if they 
doe proceed notwithstanding it will provoke us to a due Considera- 
tion of what wee are nextly obliged to doe. 

Dated Hartford, October 22nd, 1673." 



WINTHROP'S LETTER. 313 

Majesty of England, your lawful lord and king, let 
him now speak." There was silence. But Steen- 
wyck declared them the subjects of their High 
Mightinesse and his Highness of Orange, the oath of 
allegiance to whom he now offered. He continues 
his report : "After many discussions pro and con, 
we took up our commission and papers, and having 
entered due protest left the village." Some South- 
ampton men were present, and one John Couper 
told the Councillor, " to have a care and not appear 
in Southhampton with that thing," meaning the flag 
of the Prince of Orange. When asked if "he said 
so of himself, or for the inhabitants of the town," he 
replied : " Rest satisfied that I warn you not to 
come within range of shot from our village." Dis- 
cretion was thereupon deemed the better part of 
valour and the Commission returned to New Orange, 
having found they would be " unable to effect any- 
thing and rather do harm than good." 

Governor Winthrop had already written to Massa- 
chusetts in behalf of the English on Long Island, 
** so seperate by the sea fro ye other English colo- 
nies who had no sea-forces to releive them." He 
next addresses, October 21st. 

"Ye Comader of Ye Dutch at Mahatoes: 
" Sr — It being not ye mailer of Christian or Civill 
nations to disturbe ye poore people in Cottages or 
open Villages in ye tymes of Warre, much lesse to 
impose oathes vpon them to suffer ym to goe on 
w'^ their husbandry and other country affaires. Wee 
cannot but wonder to heere of some of yours having 
beene lately downe toward the Easterne ende of 



\J 



314 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

Long Island and vrged his Ma"^^ subjects there to 
take an oath contrary to their due allegiance to 
their Soveraigne and to vse many threatening ex- 
pressions toward them in case of refusall of such an 
oath : wee thought it fitt to lett you now yt wee 
can scarce believe such commission could proceed 
fro yrselfe who wee have heard to be a soldier," 
etc. 

The General Court at Hartford had shown, upon 
the whole, a praiseworthy moderation in their inter- 
ference. But they could not be unmoved by the 
pathetic persistence with which eastern Long Island 
clung to Connecticut. The Colony declared war 
against the Dutch at New Orange, November 20, 
1673, and made ready for an active campaign in the 
spring. The States-General now offered to restore 
Nieuw Nederlandt, and in the Treaty of Westmin- 
ster, February 19, 1674, England received its whole 
territory in exchange for Surinam. The news of the 
Treaty reached America and was proclaimed from 
the Stadt Huys in New Orange, July 1 ith. The res- 
toration to the English was quietly accomplished, 
and New Orange was once again New York, October 
31, 1674. 

The former government was resumed with but 
slight changes. The Eastern Towns, however, were 
no more inclined to submit to the Duke's Laws than 
to the legislation of Holland. They still tried by 
negotiation at Hartford, and by petitions to the 
King, to attach themselves to Connecticut. James 
had already obtained a new patent from his brother, 
and instead of reinstating the old ofificers, appointed 



GOVERNOR ANDROS. 315 

Major Edmond Andros' governor of all his posses- 
sions in America with vice-regal powers. Andros 
arriving in New York, October 31st, at once sent a 
special messenger to Sylvester Salisbury, afterward. 
High Sheriff of Yorkshire, to demand the allegiance 
of the Eastern Towns. They replied by a memorial * 
setting forth their debt to Connecticut by whose 
help they had repelled the invasion of the Dutch. 
At the Town Meeting of November 14th, they declared 
themselves still under the government of Connecti- 
cut, that they "would use all lawful means so to 
continue," and that they would not recede from her 
jurisdiction without her consent. Andros at once 
issued peremptory orders that the former constable 
and overseers be restored to office "under penalty 
of being declared rebels." At the same time he 
wrote Winthrop to disabuse the ofificers he had ap- 
pointed of the "notion that they could exercise any 
power in New York." Winthrop replied, hoping 
an arrangement could be made pleasing to " the 
Plantations at the East." He said : " Those 
people eminently manifested their loyalty to his 
Ma*'^ with the hazard of their lives, wives and 
children and all they had, being very neare a 
total ruine. Vpon that account and that they 
might be vnder the shelter of his Ma >®^ goodness, 
they petitioned his Ma''^'s Court of this his colonie 

' Major Andros was of a Guernsey family of tried loyalty. In his 
youth, he had been gentleman-in-waiting to the ill-starred Elizabeth 
of Bohemia. 

' The memorial was drawn up by John Mulford, John Howell, and 
John Youngs. 



3l6 EARLY LONG LSLAND. 

of Connecticut for their help therein, as well as for 
assistance against the ever threatening fire and sword 
and plunder." 

Andros made a royal progress to the East, and 
the towns were forced into a reluctant submission.' 
But this he rewarded by suspending the Court of 
Sessions in the East Riding, while Brookhaven and 
Huntington were ordered to transact their affairs for 
the term at Jamaica." 

So matters went on through the maladministra- 
tion of Andros. Long Island was the centre of the 
disaffection toward him. In the very last month 
of his sojourn, he summoned to New York and im- 
prisoned without trial five freemen of Huntington ' 
for having attended a meeting to consider grievances 
and to discuss means of redress. Andros left the 
country in May, i68i. In June was a special Court 
of Assize where the Grand Jury pronounced the lack 
of a General Assembly to be an " insupportable 
grievance." Captain John Youngs, the High 
Sheriff, was instructed to draft a petition to the 
Duke, in which all parties and classes joined. James 

' The Duke writes to Andros from St. James, April 6, 1675, that 
he is " well satisfied with his proceedings and more especially with 
his conduct in reducing to obedience those three factious towns at ye 
East end of Long Island." 

- Disaffection was not confined to the Eastern Towns. In New- 
town, the Clerk, John Burroughs, had reflected upon the authority of 
the Court of Assize. He was arrested, brought to New York and 
tied to the whipping-post for an hour, bearing a placard denouncing 
him as the writer of seditious papers. He was then disqualified from 
in future holding any public trust. 

^ Epenetus Piatt, Isaac Piatt, Samuel Titus, Thomas Wicks, Jonas 
Wood. 



DONGA A' S ADMINISTRATION. 317 

consulted William Penn, and, following his advice, 
the new Governor, Thomas Dongan, later, Earl of 
Limerick, was directed to convoke a legislative as- 
sembly of the freemen. 

Dongan, called by Domine Selyns, " a person of 
knowledge, politeness and friendliness," was un- 
questionably the best of the colonial governors of 
New York. That he was a Catholic caused him to 
be regarded with ignorant suspicion, and excited 
some unjust aspersions, but through good and evil 
report, he seems to have pursued the even tenor of 
his way, a tolerant man, seeking to advance the best 
interests of the colony. On his appointment East- 
hampton sent an address written by Thomas James, 
promising their allegiance if the Governor " were an 
instrument under God to relieve them," and to re- 
store " their freedom and privileges, otherwise they 
should appeal to their most gracious Sovereign." 
The Town sent Mr. James to New York to direct 
the action of their deputies. They were pledged to 
make a stand in the Assembly for " maintaining our 
privileges and English liberties, and especially 
against any writ going in the Duke's name, but only 
in his Majesty's whom we own as our sovereign." 
They also assured the High Sheriff that they " do 
not send their men in obedience to his warratit, but 
because they would not neglect any opportunity to 
assert their own liberties." 

Dongan did not reach New York until August, 
1683. At the accustomed meeting of the Assizes, 
in October, he presided, his first ofificial appearance. 
After the adjournment of the Court, the Sheriff 



3lS EAULY LOXG ISLAXD. 

drew up an address to the Duke of York, written by 
John Youngs, thanking him for sending them a 
Governor ''of whose integrity, justice, equity and 
prudence we have already had a very sufficient ex- 
perience at our last General Court of Assize." 

The High Sheriff had meanwhile, pursuant to the 
permission given two years earlier, issued his 
warrants to call together the freeholders of the 
several towns to meet him in a General Assembly. 
This first Colonial Legislature of New York con- 
vened in Fort James, October 17. 16S3, sixty years 
after the purchase of the Manhattans, thirty years 
after the people's first demand for representation. 
The body, consisting of the Governor and his 
Council, and seventeen delegates chosen bv the 
people.' remained in session until November 3d. 
Matthias NicoU of the East Riding was chosen 
Speaker of the House. Some of the Duke's Laws 
were repealed ; some new laws made by " The Peo- 
ple met in General Assembly." Thus did they be- 
come sharers in the provincial legislation, a right 
not yet recognised by the Patent. Fourteen acts 
were passed. Every act was read three times, and 
then received the consent of the Governor and his 
Council. Here was formulated a Charter of 
Liberties which gave New York, for the first time, 
political equaiit}- with ^Lassachusetts and Yirginia. 
It rested upon the fundamental principle that, under 
the Duke, authority should be vested in the Gov- 
ernor and Council, and " the People met in General 
Assembly." It emphasised the basal truth of all 
' Its records beinsr destroyed, there is no exact list of its members. 



THE CHARTER OF LIBERTIES. 319 

political freedom, that taxation could only be with 
the consent of the taxed. It ordered that every 
freeholder within the Province, and freeman in any 
corporation, should have his free choice and vote in 
the election of their representatives, without " any 
manner of constraint or imposition, and that all 
elections should be determined by the majority of 
voters. In the words of the Petition of Right of 
162S, it ordained that, " No aid, tax, tallage, assess- 
ment, custom, loan, benevolence or imposition 
whatsoever, should be laid, assessed, imposed or 
levied on any of his Majesty's subjects within this 
Province, or these estates, upon any manner of 
colour or pretence, but by the Act and Consent of 
the Governour, the Council and the Representatives 
of the People in General Assembly met and Assem- 
bled." 

This " Charter of Liberties and Privileges granted 
by his Royal Highness to the Inhabitants of New 
York and its Dependencies, confirmed by Act of 
Assembly," was proclained in front of the City 
Hall,' October 31st, to the people summoned " by 
sound of the trumpet to hear the same." 

The General Assembly was to meet at least once 
in three years. A court was to be held in every 
town on the first Wednesday of the month ; the 

' This tiist City Mall, built of stone in 1642, and originally used as 
a tavern, stood on Waal Straat (a road along the river shore from the 
Fort to the Ferry, on the present line of Pearl Street) where is now 
the northwest corner of Pearl Street and Coenties Slip. On the 
organisation of the niunicif al government in 1653, it was ceded to 
the city as a Stadt Huys, and so used from 1655 to 1699 when it was 
sold for ;^ 1 10. 



3::o JSAXLV LONG /SL.4Xr>. 



Court of Sessions, quarterly or half-yearly in each 
count}/ and a Court of Oyer and Terminer with 
original and appellate jurisdiction, half-yearly. The 
Governor and his Council officiated as a Court of 
Chancery, the Supreme Court of the Province, from 
which appeal could be made to the King alone. 

Yorkshire with its Ridings was annulled, and the 
Province Wvis divided into twelve shires * : 

*' Oueen's Countv to contevne the severall towns 
of Newtown, Jamaica, Flushing, Hempstead and Oys- 
ter Bay with the severall out-farms, settlements and 
plantacons adjoining. 

'■ King's County to conteync the severall towns of 
Roswyck, Bedford. Brucklyn, f^latbush, fflatlands. 
New Utrecht and Gravesend, with the severall set- 
tlements and plantacons adjacent. 

** Suffolk County to contevne the severall towns 
of Huntington. Smithfiold, Brookhaven, Southamp- 
ton, SouthoKl. Easthampton to Montauk Point, 
Shelter Island, the Island of Wight, Fisher's Island 
and Plumb Island with the severall out-farms and 
Plantacons adjacent." 

The relative importance of I-ong Island was then 
immeasurably greater than now. Even at the close 
of the last century, the Island contarned one third 
the population of the State. 

In T6S4 the order for the renewal of patents greatly 

' Fiv King's County at dravcsond, after iDJ^5 at Flatbush ; for 
Queen's County, at Jamaica ; for SulTolk County, alteruattly at 
SouthoKl sind at Southampton, 

• King's, Qu«.H>n"s. Suffv>lk, Puke's, Cornwall, New York, Orange, 
Vlsier. \i; ,)n\. Putchess. Westchester and Ridunoiui, 



KEMOVAI. OF PATENTS. 32 1 

disturbed the people of T.oiii; Island, but within two 
years all the towns except lluntini^ton took out the 
new grants. Those of Hempstead and of Flushing- 
were particularly favourable. These towns had given 
to the Governor large tracts of land, luisthanipton 
was characteristically obstinate. IMulford led the 
loud protestors and James preached seditious ser- 
mons. They were summoned to New York and 
obliged to retract their utterances, and the town 
finally received a liberal patent. 

From 1685 to 1691 no Assembly was held. In 
1688 the judicious Dongan was replaced by Colonel 
Francis Nicholson, the Lieutenant-Governor for 
Andros. He was even more obnoxious to Long 
Lsland than had been the Viceroy himself. James 
n., an industrious man of affairs, selfish, but " more 
a bigot than a tyrant," had come to the throne, in- 
tending an entire change of the colonial policy. He 
wished to substitute direct monarchial rule for the 
existing oligarchies. All the colonics within the 
limits of James I's Patent of 1620, Pennsylvania 
excepted, ho embraced in the " Dominion of New 
England " with one colonial governor of his own 
appointment. This union pleased only the New 
England immigrants in the Eastern Towns who 
wished to sell their oil at Boston.' Western Long 
Island had manj^ affiliations with the Dutch, for 
Nieuw Nederlandt had been to her " a fosterinjx 
' Dongan had some years before written to James, that "Con- 
necticut was always grasping, tenacious and prosperous at hor neigh- 
bour's expense, of evil influence over the New York towns of 1 dng 
Island whose refractory ]ieo]ile had rather cany their oil to luistou 
and their whalebone to Terth [Aniboy] than to their own capital," 
ax 



J 



322 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

mother." New York and Massachusetts had been 
antasfonistic from th.eir earliest settlement ; the one 
had from the very first, something of the cosmo- 
politan character which has since distinguished the 
city, and therewith a broad, if sometimes superficial, 
way of dealing with the problems of life and thought ; 
the other, holding herself as " wheat thrice win- 
nowed," was at least sectional and narrow in her 
range of sympathies. 

The storm raised by Leisler's assumption of the 
government did not rage as fiercely on Long Island 
as in the city. Cotton Mather's Declaration of April 
i8, 1689, by which Boston justified the revolt of 
Massachusetts, had fired the Eastern Towns. Suf- 
folk and Queen's displaced their civil officers in May, 
but Queen's County in many ways still held her alle- 
giance to her sovereign, and met the fate of those 
loyal to a fallen power.' 

Deputies were sent from Southampton, East- 
hampton, and Huntington, to demand the delivery 
of the Fort "to such persons as the country shall 
chuse." New York, clinging to Dutch traditions, 
was devoted to the Stadtholder, the Prince of 
Orange, who, as William III., secured for England a 
Protestant rule. The people were suspicious of the 
officers appointed during James's reign, even though 
they were Protestants and worthy men. Nicholson 

' " Whereas Severall dcsafTcctcd persons have augmented, strength- 
ened and advanced ye Interest of King Jame^ as much as in them 
lyes, contrary to their Hounden duty and allegiance to our Sovereigne 
Lord, King William, his Sovereign Tittle, Crowne and Dignity, there 
are in his Ma'ies name to will and require you to Secure ye Body of 



LEISLER'S GOVERNMENT. 323 

and his Council could act only under direct orders 
from the King, and their one endeavour was to pre- 
serve peace until such orders could be received. 
Meanwhile the people were impatient. A rumour 
was current that Nicholson meant to burn the town. 
There was no acknowledged government. 

The elements of mob-rule were gathering force. 
A strong, if an illegal, hand was needed. Just then, 
May 31, 1689, the German, Jacob Leisler, seized the 
Fort and issued a Declaration that he " should keep 
and guard, surely and faithfully, the said Fort in be- 
half of the person who was governor, to surrender 
to the Person of the Protestant Religion that shall 
be nominated or sent by the Power aforesaid." 

Leisler invited the several towns of the Province 
to send two deputies to the popular assembly at 
Fort James, June 26, 1689, and two men to help 
guard the Fort. Brooklyn, Flatbush, Flatlands, and 
Gravesend complied with the latter request. Queens 
and Suffolk refused, but Queens was represented in 
the Assembly by Nathaniel Piersoll. Suffolk once 
more began unavailing negotiations with Connecti- 
cut, and the next year sent no delegates to the 
General Assembly summoned by Leisler. Writs 

Collonel Thomas Dongan with a Safeguard within his own house 
[Dongan had retired lo a farm in Hempstead], and to appre- 
hend Colonell Thomas Willet, Cap" Thomas Hicks, Daniel White- 
head and Edward Antill, ye said Persons to convey unto me 
hither. 

" Given &c this 15th of Feb. yc A° 1689, 

" Jacob Leisler. 

"To ye Civill and Military Officers & Sherife for ye Queen's 
County upon Long Island," 



324 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

were issued for this meeting February 20, 1690, but 
the people were " very slack " in compliance. 

New writs were sent out April 8th, and the 
Assembly met on the 24th. Nathaniel Piersoll, of 
Queens, refused to serve. In October, Milborne was 
ordered to take the force necessary to subdue 
" with all violence and hostility " the " Rebellion " 
which existed in Queen's County. Soon after, the 
Court of Oyer and Terminer, about to sit in King's 
County, was suspended until Long Island " could 
be reduced to obedience." Early in November, the 
people of Hempstead, Jamaica, Flushing, and 
Newtown met, and through Captain John Clapp, 
wrote to the Secretary of State, explaining their 
*' miserable condition by the severe oppression and 
tyrannical usurpation of Jacob Leisler and his ac- 
complices." 

Perhaps no better instance of Long Island's in- 
grained conservatism could be given than their fail- 
ure to recognise in Leisler, however ill-judged his 
course, the same inherent spirit of independence 
which had fired their own freemen. His death, now 
deemed that of a political martyr, passed unnoticed 
by them. The long-delayed arrival of Governor 
Sloughter confirmed the system of government ' 

^ At his first Assembly, April 9, 1691, the Long Island deputies 

were : 

Nathaniel Howell \ ^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^ 

Henry Pierson ; 

John Bowne \ r\ ' n * 

-■ >• Queen s County. 

Nath'l riersoll S ^ '' 

John Boland \ ^^^^^ ^^^^^^ 

Nicholas Stilwell ) 
John Clapp of Queen's was made Clerk of the Assembly. The 



NICOLVS GO VERNMEN T REINS TA TED. 325 

established by Nicoll, and which was maintained 
until the Revolution. His brief administration and 
that of his successor, Major Ingoldsby, left no ripple 
on the finally quiescent surface of Long Island 
afTairs. Colonel Fletcher, arriving in 1692, was to give 
to Matouwacks a new name, and the eighteenth cen- 
tury, opening as an era of peace and good feeling, 
was to begin a career of active development, the 
course of which may be briefly traced. 

deputies from Queen's being Quakers, scrupled to take an oath of 
allegiance, and Daniel Whitehead and John Robinson were set in 
their stead. 




XIV. 



NASSAU IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 



ONE March morning in the spring of 1693, 
Governor Fletcher rose in the Executive 
Chamber of the old Dutch Stadt Huys, not 
yet condemned and replaced by the new City Hall, 
and thus addressed the Council : 

" Gentlemen, there is one small request to you 
which I hope will meet with noe opposition, and 
that is, that the King's name may live forever among 
you. I would have a Bill passe for the calling of 
Long Island the Island of Nassau." The Bill was 
read three times before receiving the consent of 
the Council, a delay on which the Governor com- 
mented, saying : " It met with some opposition 
amongst you, but I believe it proceeded merely 
from ignorance, for the calling of that Island by a 
new name can in noe ways hurt or injure any former 
grants of land. I have noe design in proposing it 
to you but that we might put some mark of respect 
upon the best of Kings." As this legislation has 
never been repealed, Nassau is still the legal name 

of our Island. 

326 



IN THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS. 327 

In the long series of French and Indian wars, cul- 
minating and closing in this period, Long Island 
men played a distinguished part. Major WoodhuU 
and Colonel Richard Hewlett fought side by side at 
Frontenac and on the Plains of Abraham. Very 
early in the English possession of the province of 
New York, Long Island was called upon to be ready 
for war, offensive or defensive, and she always fur- 
nished her full quota of men and generous supplies. 
Colonel NicoU wrote from Fort James, June 19, 
1667, to the Justices of the Peace, the Constables, 
and Overseers of the town of Suffolk, and to Oyster 
Bay and Hempstead, as follows : 
** Gentlemen : 

" I have not given you the trouble of alarums to 
interrupt your private Occasions, but the Name 
of Warrs sounds from farr in other Plantations & 
therefore it becomes necessary in his Majesty's 
name to direct and require that for the common 
safety in this time of danger, your Militia be put 
into the following Wayes of defence & readiness to 
comply with these my directions : 

" 1st. That one third of the Militia Avhich are now 
in foot Companies doe fitt themselves with horses, 
saddles & such armes (either Pistoles, Carabines or 
Musketts) as they have, which third part are to be 
ready at an houres warning to answer all true 
Alarums of an Enemy & my orders when I appoint 
them a Randevous. 

" 2dly. That the two parts of the Militia remaine 
in and about their Plantations for the security of 
their families and Estates as much as may bee. 



328 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

" Srdly. That if any Towne bee in more Danger 
than another, the neighbouring Townes shall upon 
notice send Reliefe to them," etc. 

These rumours of wars proved baseless, but during 
the English Revolution there was much alarm over 
the possibility of a French invasion. In May, 1689, 
the Freeholders of Suffolk urge measures " to secure 
our English nation's libertys and Propertyes from 
Popery & Slavery and from the Intended invasion 
of a foreign enemy," being assured the French 
" design more than Turkish crueltys." 

The French were not ignorant of the important 
strategetic position of Long Island, and of its richness 
as a base of supplies. The Memoir of M. d' Iberville 
on Boston and its Dependencies, written in 1701, 
thus speaks of it: "The entrance into the River at 
New York is dif^cult for two leagues, as far as * Isle 
des Lapins.' Long Island can muster 1500 men at 
least, so it need not be expected to make descent 
with ships in any of those places without a consider- 
able force. . . . Were the grain of Long Island * 
burnt, the settlers would be obliged to retire into 
Pennsylvania in order to subsist. The abandonment 
of those places would greatly weaken New York and 
deprive it of the power of undertaking anything."'' 

During Queen Anne's war, Lord Cornbury writes 
to the Lords of Trade ' of an expected invasion and 

' The Memoir of M. La Motte Cadillac, on Acadia, New England, 
and Virginia, written in 1692, says : " Long Island produces a pro- 
digious quantity of wheat which makes as good bread as the finest 
grain in France." 

* Xcw York Colonial Documents, vol."ix., pp. 729, 732. 

' Under date, November 6, 1704, see N'ew York Colonial Docu- 
ments^ vol. iv. , p. 1 120. 



A JAMAICA JUBILEE. 329 

the rumoured appearance of the French men-of-war 
within Sandy Hook, but adds: " Their fears are over 
for the men of war dwindled to one French privateer 
of fourteen gunns. I cannot say that the mihtia of 
this City did their duty, for very many ran away to 
the woods, but the Militia of Long Island deserve 
to be commended. Col : Willet who commands the 
Militia of Queen's Co : in ten hours' time brought 
1000 men within an hour's march of New York. 
King's Co: was likewise in good readiness but there 
being no occasion for them they were sent home." 

In the roster of the Provincial Militia there were 
then three thousand one hundred and eighty-two 
names, nearly one half of which, one thousand four 
hundred and ninety-five, were from Long Island. 
Suffolk County furnished six hundred and fourteen 
men ; Queens, six hundred and one ; and Kings 
County, two hundred and eighty.' It is curious to 
compare the distribution of population on Nassau 
then, with the present time. 

The New York Weekly Post-Boy oi July 29, 1745, 
gives the following account of a Long Island cele- 
bration : 

" Jamaica on L. I. July 20. 

" The Good News of the Surrender of Cape 
Breton coming to us in the Middle of our Harvest 
obliged us to defer the Time of Publick rejoicing 
until yesterday: when the Magistrates, Military Ofifi- 
cers and many other Gentlemen &c. of this County 
met at this Place and Feasted together, and at night 
gave a Tub of Punch and a fine Bonfire, drank the 
publick Healths and especially of the Valiant com- 

' For names, see ibid., vol. iv. , p. 808. 



330 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

mander immediately concern'd in this great Action, 
and joined in Chorus to the following Song, 

T>et all true subjects now rejoice 
The seventeenth day of June 
. On Monday morning in a trice 
We sang the French a tune. 

A glorious Peace we shall have soon 
For we have conquer'd Cape Breton 
With a fa— la— la ! 

Brave Warren and Pepperell 

Stout Wolcott and the rest 
Of British Heroes with Good Will 

Enter'd the Hornet's Nest. 

A glorious Peace &c. 

A Health let 's to King George advance 

That he may long remain 
To curb the Arrogance of France 

And Haughtiness of Spain. 

A glorious Peace Src." 

The letters of the Earl of Bellamont to the Lords 
of Trade are characterised by a very piquant frank- 
ness and contain many an unconscious confession of 
the secret springs of his administration. In April, 
1699, he writes: " Nicholls ' hath so poyson'd the 
people of Queen's Co : who are all English that f 
part of them are said to be downright Jacobites, 
and to avoid taking the Oathes to the King which I 
lately enjoyned all the Males in the Province to do, 

' " Mr. Nicholls, late of the Council," was Matthias Nicoll, Sec- 
retary and nephew of Colonel Richard Nicoll. 



EVASION OF REVENUE LAWS. 33 1 

from 16 years old and upwards, a great many men in 
that Co : pretend themselves Quakers to avoid 
taking the Oathes. ... In Suffolk Co : on 
Nassaw Island, they are all English too, but quite 
a different temper and principle from those I have 
been speaking of, being 10 Williamites for i Jacob- 
ites." This was not the last time that County held 
to her faith through good and evil report, and arrayed 
her best strength on the losing side. 

A little later Bellamont writes : " I forgot to ac- 
quaint your Lordships with a petition of the Inhabi- 
tants of Suffolk, another of Queen's Co : in this 
Province, for the settling of a Dissenting Ministry 
among them. I gave no Countenance to them nor 
will not recommend them now. I think the best 
way is to forget them." 

The Long Islanders were inborn free-traders and 
Lord Bellamont was active in efforts to prevent 
their evasion of the revenue laws. He writes to the 
Board of Trade, May 13, 1699 of his difficulties 
therein : 

" I find great want of good officers of Justice in 
the Improvement of the Revenue & to convince 
your Lordship of it, I must acquaint you that there 
are on Nassaw Island four harbours' besides a great 
many creeks where the merchants run in great 
quantities of goods, computed to be \ as much as 
are fairly imported at New York. . . . Mr. 
Graham is of opinion that the Excise of Nassaw 

' Southold, Setauket, Oyster Bay, and Musquito Cove. Later 
there were Custom Houses established at Southold, Oyster Bay, and 
at Carnarsie on Jamaica Bay. 



332 EARLY LONG LSLAND. 

Island if faiily collected would amount to ;^ 12,000 
per Ann : which is 12 times as much as I doubt it 
will be lett for this year, wherein I have some rea- 
son to apprehend myself ill-used, it being a resolved 
thing to keep down the Revenue as low as may be, 
for my discredit. I offered one of the Lieutenants 
of the County ^loo a year with a Couple of Horses 
for him and a man to attend him, and I intended 
him to be riding Surveyor of Nassaw, not only to 
lett and collect Excise of the whole Island, but also 
to inspect and watch the harbours and creeks that 
no goods or merchandises should be run in, and he 
to have \ of all he should seize, but though he is a 
brisk man and ready to starve for his want of pay 
and subsistence, told me in plain terms it was too 
hazzardous an undertaking for him and refused to 
meddle." ' 

These were the days when piracy was to a certain 
extent legalised, and a commission for privateering 
was a sovereign's frequent gift. Of this careless 
generosity, the gov^ernment began too late to repent, 
and Lord Bellamont found new complications here. 
After writing of the pirates that " the East End of 
the Island is their rendezvous and sanctuary," he 
again says: " I formerly acquainted your Lordships 
that Nassaw Island, alias Long Island, was become 
a great receptacle for pirates. I take the Island and 
especially the East end of it, to excede Rhode 
Island.^ The people there have been manny of them 

' Ni-a< York Colonial DocuDU'uts, vol. iv., p. 516. 
■ He had already written of Rhode Island : " I know the Govern- 
ment & People to be the most piratical in the King's Dominion." 



POLITICAL QUIET ON NASSAU. 333 

Pirates themselves and are sure to be well-affected to 
the Trade." ' 

But as the eighteenth century advances, no such 
lurid light falls upon Long Island. As the colonial 
government crystallised into more definite and en- 
during forms, the spirit of faction and lawlesgness 
co-existent with independence was always rife in 
the city of New York. From the earliest times 
there was present the material for riots in this cos- 
mopolitan seaport, whose wharfs were thronged with 
sailors of every nation, and desperate men from every 
grade of society seeking to mend their fortunes in 
the New World. Not so, however, upon the neigh- 
bouring Island of Nassau whose quiet was little 
broken by the excitements of the capital. Neither 
the trial and acquittal of Zenger, the frenzy of the 
Negro Plot, nor the political manoeuvrings of Clinton, 
of Livingston, and of William Smith, disturbed her. 
The agitation excited by the Stamp Act, and the 
succeeding legislation which thrilled Massachusetts 
and stirred her to action, did not easily penetrate to 
the secluded farmsteads or the busy harbours of 
Nassau. Until the Revolution was fairly begun and 
the unhappy Island had entered upon her baptism of 
fire, she knew little of political strife or of discontent 
with existing forms of government. The eighteenth 
century was a formative period. Education and 
social refinements were taking their due place, and 
there had begun a time of marked agricultural and 
commercial development. That Long Island was 
regarded as the granary of the English provinces has 
^ Written October 29, 1699. Ibid., p. 591. 



334 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

been already shown. Mention has been made of the 
careful fruit-culture introduced by the first Huguenot 
settlers, and of the early establishment of nurseries. 
Then also, the great whaling interests established in 
the seventeenth century, before the English Con- 
quest, were extended and became an abundant 
source of wealth. 

The colonial newspapers published in New York 
picture the business, the manners, and the amuse- 
ments of the age, and with increased prosperity 
came relaxations and diversions borrowed from the 
Old Country, The New York Gazette of June 4, 
1750, tells us that " A great Horse-Race was run off 
Hampstead Plains for a considerable v\^ager which 
engaged the attention of so many in the City that 
upward of seventy chairs and chaises were carried 
over the ferry from hence, and a far greater number 
of horses, so that it was thought that the number of 
Horses on the Plains at the Races far exceeded a 
thousand." On the Flatland Plains was a famous 
racecourse called Ascot Heath, much frequented 
during the Revolution by the British officers. The 
announcement of a horse-race, or a bull-baiting, was 
usually headed, " PRO BONO PUBLICO." That the 
latter was not an unusual amusement is shown by 
many public notices. John Cornell in the NezvYork 
Mercury, in August, 1774, announces that there will 
be •' A Bull Baited on Town Hill " (Brooklyn 
Heights, Columbia Street near Cranberry Street) 
" at 3 o'clock every Thursday during the season." 

Long Island had no Post Office during the colonial 
period. There was none upon the Island until 1793, 



LIBERTY OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT. 335 

New York serving the people of Kings and Queens, 
while those of Suffolk County were dependent on 
New London. A post-route called the Circuit, was 
established in 1764, and mail was carried fortnightly 
by a horseman along the North Shore, returning by 
the South Side. In 1782, "A New Flying Machine 
on steel springs will leave Brooklyn for Jamaica on 
Thursday, Sunday and Tuesday, at 8'0'clock, return- 
ing the same evening. Proper care taken of all 
letters and newspapers." 

When free from outside influences the long jeal- 
ousies between the East and the West were softened 
by time, and by the acceptance and support of a 
common government, the Indians had become fewer 
in number and gradually more civilised. As fisher- 
men and berry-pickers, as basket-makers and house- 
hold servants, they were a small, a constantly 
diminishing, a peaceful, and always a pathetic ele- 
ment in the community. 

Favoured in natural advantages, it was still the 
sterling worth of her people which determined the 
character of Long Island. It is a noteworthy fact 
that among her first planters was not a single Re- 
demptioner, nor one of the criminal class which 
swelled the population of other colonies. Long 
Island was settled by the best yeomanry of Eng- 
land, among whom were found professional men 
and not a few of gentle blood and fair estate. 

There were other conditions in a high degree con- 
ducive to the well-being of Long Island. It was 
spared the blight of theological controversy. In 
the years when the Connecticut Valley was writhing 



336 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

under the fiery eloquence of Jonathan Edwards, and 
Whitfield preached on Boston Common to fifteen 
thousand weeping hearers, the Dutch Domines of 
Nassau went calmly through their accustomed 
ritual ; the once persecuted Friends, in their plain 
houses, quietly awaited the movement of the Spirit ; 
the Liturgy of the Church of England was heard at 
Saint George's and at Caroline Church ; Indepen- 
dent ministers held their meetings unmolested, and 
at Southampton was refuge for Elisha Paine, re- 
volting from the Saybrook Platform, — the thrice- 
imprisoned, fearless itinerant preacher of religious 
freedom. 

This mild tolerance, which except for brief perse- 
cution of the Quakers, had always characterized 
Long Island, was a direct heritage from Holland, 
and not the least of the good New York owes to 
her earliest settlers. Their influence is more vital 
and more seminal than is often recognised, and gives 
the solid substratum of conservatism which still 
characterises the people of Nassau, even those in 
whose veins flows not a drop of Dutch blood. 

Long Island, increasing rapidly in population and 
in wealth, her thrifty planters soon found themselves 
more " straitened " than had been the Linne men. 
The middle of the eighteenth century was the swarm- 
ing time, and from the mother-hive were sent out in 
groups, or in single families, those who in subse- 
quent migration have carried the names and blood 
of Long Island from the Hudson to the Rio Grande 
and the Yukon. It is doubtful whether there has 
been in America any greater centre of dispersion, 



S WA RMING FROM THE MO THER-Hl VE. 337 

certainly none to which can be more directly traced 
the best elements of our American character. 

The immediate points of emigration were to the 
eastern shore of New Jersey, to Westchester, and to 
Dutchess County, where in the Philipse Patent, The 
Nine Partners, The Oblong, and on the river banks, 
many Long Island families were established. Long 
Island heirlooms are in the old houses, and Long 
Island virtues are fragrant in the memory of their 
descendants. It is pleasant to dwell upon what 
must have been then the social and domestic life of 
Long Island, and especially of Queens County, its 
most typical region, and the one most thoroughly 
English in the details of its household economy. It 
resembled the old Virginia life more nearly than any 
other of the American colonies, not the less that the 
ownership of negro slaves was almost universal 
among the well-to-do. The presence of these he- 
reditary ' household servants gave a picturesque 
note to rural life and a piquancy to surviving tradi- 
tions, while the institution of slavery existed there 
in an almost ideal form. 

Here the prayer of Agur was fulfilled in condi- 
tions that removed from life its most sordid cares 
and its most degenerating influences. Its first 
planters acted upon Captain John Smith's concep- 
tion of a colony when he asked — " Who can desire 

■ There are few Long Island wills which do not include the slaves 
in the disposition of personal property, and often with tender pro- 
vision for their comfort, as when the will of V. H. P. provides that 
"his negro woman Pegg be given a comfortable support from his 
residuary estate, and that she be at Liberty to live with such of his 
Children for such times as she shall see fitt," 

83 



338 EARLY LONG LSLAND. 

more content that hath but small means, or but his 
merits to advance his future, than to tread and plant 
the ground he hath purchased by the hazard of his 
life? If he hath but a taste of virtue and mag- 
nanimity what to such a mind can be more pleasant 
than planting and building a foundation for his pos- 
teritie, got from the rude earth by God's blessing 
without prejudice to any ? " 

Many ancestral estates and modest freeholds have 
come down in direct descent from the first planters. 
Living close to the soil, there was a hearty content, 
a serene philosophy, which are the best outcome of 
country life. Intermarriage between the leading 
families was so usual and approved a custom, that 
when some adventurous youth sought a bride out- 
side the circle of his cousins, the old folk gravely 
shook their heads and lamented that " he had mar- 
ried a stranger." Thus were strengthened the ties 
of home and race. The Hempstead Resolutions 
sounded a characteristic note in their protest against 
" introducing innovations." But the end was near. 




XV. 



PROTESTS AGAINST 



REBELLION 
WAR. 



THE OPENING 



IN the war which achieved the American Inde- 
pendence, no one of the English colonies 
endured as much as Long Island. It was op- 
pressed both by friend and foe ; it was at the mercy 
of whichever party enjoyed a temporary success. 
Suffering equally from the raids of provincial militia 
and Committees of Safety, or of Connecticut whale- 
boat men, and from the lawlesss depredations of the 
British army, loyal and whig alike were plundered. 
On every side peculiarly exposed to attack, Long 
Island was literally between the upper and nether 
millstones.' 

Queens County, settled by a class of English im- 
migrants little tinctured by Puritanism — the scced- 
ers of Wethersfield and Stamford, and other men of 
education and of substance, usually Churchmen, 

* In September, 1776, the people of Easthampton, in an appeal to 
Governor Trumbull for his protection, say that in their "present 
distressed and perplexed situation, they hope they may not be as a 
torch on fire at both ends." 

33y 



340 EARL V LONG ISLAND. 

who for more than a century had wisely adminis- 
tered her affairs. — Queens County was almost with- 
out exception loyal to her King. The Five Dutch 
Towns also held a strongly conservative population, 
who shrank from any rash upheaval of the existing 
order, while in both Kings and Queens the worthy 
and not inconsiderable Quaker element was on 
principle opposed to war, as in itself a greater evil 
than any it might seek to rightv Suffolk County, 
with the exception of a few families, attached itself 
to the Whig party. The Eastern Towns from their 
earliest settlement were most unwillingl}' associated 
with the west of the Island. From the first coming 
of the Linne men to Nieuw Nederlandt, all their 
sympathies had been with New England, and their 
entreaties to be permanently incorporated with Con- 
necticut had been earnest and persistent. 

Thus, even while the orange, blue, and white 
floated over 'T Lange Eylandt, the Netherlandic 
motto, " Eendragt maakt Magt," was not a controll- 
ing principle. The change of flags had brought little 
more union of feeling. There had been from the 
first, two distinct classes, which have mingled little 
with one another. These divergent currents were 
now to be more widely separated. It was not a 
racial but, to a great degree, a religious and social 
distinction which separated the Loyalists from the 
Whigs on Long Island,' With those whose devo- 

' Any student of her history can see the injustice of the following 
summary account of her status : " On Long Island, the people of 
Kings and Queens, of Dutch descent were tories almost to a man, 
while the English population of Suffolk were solidly in favour of In- 
dependence. And this instance of Long Island was typical. From 



LO YAL T Y AND PA TRIO TISM. 34 1 

tion to either side was pre-determined by ancestry 
and by environment, there was also a large class of 
would-be neutral men, and not a few Vicars of Bray, 
carefully balancing the measures of expediency which 
were to win their cheap adherence. So it was, that 
while every Loyalist was true to the bitter end, giv- 
ing his all to the inexorable sense of duty which 
made him such, there were unquestionably many 
selfish men among those who arrogated to them- 
selves alone the name of " Patriots," 

Patriotism was the watchword of the Whig party, 
but patriotism and loyalty are not necessarily con- 
vertible terms. Carlyle has well said, " The Truth is 
that for which men will sacrifice most." The Loy- 
alists of the Revolution sacrificed all. Contumely, 
confiscation, and exile were their portion. The per- 
spective of distance is needed for any just and un- 
impassioned historical estimate. We are scarcely 
more than a century removed from those days which 
" tried men's souls." We have remembered much 
on which should have fallen the soft pall of merciful 
Time. But we have also forgotten, or have never 
duly weighed, those extenuating circumstances in 
whose light alone can be read the story of the 
American Revolution and of those who conscien- 
tiously opposed its course. 

It must be remembered that Independence was 

one end of the United States to another, as might have been expected, 
the tory sentiment was strongest with the non-English population." 
— Fiske's American Revolution^ vol. i., p. 202. 

Nowhere was a race of purer English descent than on the Plains 
of Hempstead or seated beside the many indenting coves of western 
Nassau. 



342 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

not the original object of the war. It was not until 
an irretrievable step had been taken, that the Whigs 
were forced to that issue. When James Otis said in 
the Boston Town Meeting of 1763, " What God in 
His Providence hath united, let no man dare attempt 
to pull asunder," he voiced the feeling of every 
colony from the Penobscot to the Savannah. Wash- 
ington, in the fall of 1774, was "convinced that not 
one thinking man desired Independence."' A little 
later, Jay " held nothing in greater abhorrence than 
the malignant charge of aspiring after Indepen- 
dence."^ When the event was achieved, Madison, 
in calm retrospect, wrote : " A re-establishment of 
the colonial relations with the parent country as 
they were previous to the controversy, was the real 
object of every class of the people until they 
despaired of obtaining it." 

Such was the voice of acknowledged leaders. 
When John Adams could say, " There was not a 
moment during the war when I would not have 
given everything I possessed for a restoration to the 
state of things before the contest began provided we 
could have had a sufificient security for its continu- 
ance," — when Adams could speak thus,^ is it strange 
that Long Island men of conservative mould and 
careful nurture clung to the crown and to the estab- 

' Bancroft's History of the United States, vol. v., p. 90. 

^ Winsor's Critical History of A»terica, vol. vii., p. 209. 

^ Yet such the frenzy of the time that Adams wrote from Amster- 
dam, Dec. 15, 1780, recommending more severe measures against 
the Loyalists, and saying, "I would have hanged my own brother 
had he taken part with the enemy in this contest." — Aiimial Register, 
1 78 1, p. 260. 



OPPOSITION TO INDEPENDENCE. 343 

Ushed government? It is hard to refuse the name 
of patriot to those whose love of country stood the 
supreme test to which these much mahgned men 
were subjected. 

It is the fond fancy of the present generation that 
every man of the revolutionary era not stigmatised 
as " a tory," ' was an ardent adherent of the revolt- 
ing colonies. An exact canvass would be now im- 
possible, but at the end of the war Adams declared 
that "one third the whole population and more 
than one third the principal people of America were 
thoroughly opposed to the Revolution," This was 
emphatically true in New York, where " it is prob- 
able that more than half her people were never 
really in hearty, active sympathy with the patriots." " 
In his philosophic study of the Eighteenth Century, 
the judicial Lecky writes in simple justice to this 
misunderstood class: 

" There were brave and honest men in America 
who were proud of the great and free empire to 
which they belonged. . . . Most of them ended their 
days in poverty and exile, and as the supporters 
of a beaten cause history has paid but a scanty 
tribute to their memory, but they comprised some of 
the best and ablest men America has ever produced, 
and they were contending for an ideal at least as 
worthy as that for which Washington fought, the 

' " The Loyalists of '76 had greater grounds for believing them- 
selves right than the men who tried to break up the Union three- 
quarters of a century later. It is unfair to brand the ' tory ' of '76 
with a shame no longer felt to pertain to the ' rebel ' of i860." — 
Roosevelt's Life of Gouverneur Morris, p. 29. 

2 Ibid., p. 36. 



344 EARLY LONG LSLAND. 

maintenance of one free, industrial and pacific em- 
pire, comprising the whole English race, holding the 
richest plains of Asia in subjection, blending all that 
was most venerable in ancient civilisation with the 
redundant energies of a youthful society. It might 
have been a dream, but it was at least a noble one, 
and there were Americans who were prepared to 
make any personal sacrifice rather than to assist to 
destroy it." ' 

The opprobrious epithet of Tory,^ like all party 
nicknames, was used indiscriminately, and as the 
expression of partisan hatred. Abuse is the logic 
of the ignorant. It was given to all who endeav- 
oured to preserve law and order, to protect the rights 
of person and property. Hence it followed as Sabine 
has well said, that " many who took sides at the out- 
set as mere conservators of the peace were denounced 
by those whose purposes they had thwarted, and 
finally compelled in pure self-defence to accept the 
royal protection ; they were then identified with the 
royal party ever after." 

No one contributed more to this blind hatred and 
low invective than the able author of The Crisis^ 
who in denouncing their principles denied them every 

' History of England in the Eighteenth Centtay, vol. iii., p. 418. 

' In 1777, John Eliot wrote from Boston to Jeremy Belknap : " I 
dined j'esterday with a gentleman of repute who undertook to prove 
that a tory could not be saved. He laid down the data from the 
American Crisis that ' every Tory must be a coward because it im- 
plied a slavish fear in its very idea.'" Again, speaking of a meeting 
held in Boston to denounce and to concert measures against the 
tories, Eliot says, " It has got to be just as the affair of the witches, 
every man naming his neighbour," 



CONSCIEN'TIOUS OFFICE-HOLDERS. 345 

personal virtue. In No. I. of that stirring series, he 
says : ** I should not be afraid to go with a hundred 
Whigs against a thousand Tories were they to 
attempt to get into arms. Every Tory is a coward, 
for a servile, slavish, self-interested fear is at the 
foundation of Toryism, and a man under such in- 
fluence, though he may be cruel, cannot be brave." * 
Again, he says in No. III. : " Here is the touchstone 
to try men by : He that is not a supporter of the 
Independent States of America in the same degree that 
his religions and political principles would suffer him 
to support the government of any other country of 
which he called himself a subject, is, in the A merican 
sense of the word, a Tory, and the instant he endeav- 
ours to put his Toryism into practice he becomes a 
Traitor." " A banditti of hungry traitors," " a set 
of avaricious miscreants," are other terms used by 
Paine. 

Many persons holding ofifiice under the King felt 
themselves thus debarred from an active part in a 
cause which they might otherwise have supported. 
Associators signed the pledge with the reservation, 
"Not to infringe on my oaths," or, "as far as it 
doth not interfere with the oath of my office, or my 
allegiance to the King." As the worthy Governor 
Hutchinson wrote in the spring of 1776: "I told 
Sir George [Hay] I ever thought the taxing of 
America by Parliament not advisable, but as a ser- 
vant of the Crown, I thought myself bound to dis- 
countenance the violent opposition made to the 
Act " (the Stamp Act), " as it led to the denial of 
' Yoxc^'i American Archives, series v., vol. iii., p. 1292. 



346 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

its authority in all cases whatsoever, and in fact 
brought on the Rebellion." ' 

Such a correspondence as the one recently pub- 
lished between Jeremy Belknap and Governor Went- 
worth of New Hampshire, shows well the feeling of 
moderate men on either side, and what a field there 
was for judicious compromise, rather than for angry 
recrimination and armed assault. 

Although vilified by careless tradition, and by 
superficial or prejudiced historians. Long Island has 
been from the earliest times not a '* hotbed of tories," 
but a nursery of the noblest political principles. The 
spirit of those freeholders in Landtdag assembled, 
who defied Stuyvesant, came down to the eighteenth 
century. It was the fathers of the men who in 1775 
pledged themselves to continued allegiance to their 
king, who in 171 1, in the New York Assembly, denied 
the power of the Council to alter the revenue bills, and 
who had made the first official protest against Taxa- 
tion without Representation, the popular watchword 
of the Revolution. The pure flame then kindled 
was never quite extinguished. It was fanned by the 
breath of the most sincere patriotism. Honest men 
seeking only to do their duty to king and native 
land differed conscientiously, with the same prayer- 
ful struggles with which Robert Lee and " Stonewall " 
Jackson wrestled to discover what that duty might 
be.^ 

^ Diary and LeiUrs, vol. ii., p. 58. 

- Thomas Paine, in Common Sense, classifies the Loyalists, or 
" Keconstructionists " (whom he also calls "Obstructionists"), as 
" Interested men who are not to be trusted ; weak men who cannot 



THE NEWTOWN RESOLUTIONS. 347 

The success which determines the reputed moral- 
ity of so many actions pronounced against the con- 
servative element. There are few to remember or 
to do justice to the faithful adherents of a lost 
cause. Hence the Loyalists of Long Island, with 
their many brothers in New England and the South, 
have borne a most undeserved ignominy. Their 
historian must bear the spear of Ithuriel as he 
balances the conflicting evidence and the contra- 
dictory traditions which make up their story. 

Until the issue became that of armed resistance to 
the King, Long Island was earnest in protest against 
" ministerial oppression." Meetings had been held, 
resolutions passed, and Committees of Correspond- 
ence appointed, in reference to the Stamp Act. 
After the passage of the Boston Port Bill, the people 
of Newtown express themselves in a series of spirited 
Resolutions : 

" First, that we consider it our greatest happiness 
and glory to be governed by the illustrious House of 
Hanover, and that we acknowledge and bear true 
allegiance to Kiiig George the third as our rightful 
sovereign." 

The second, third, and fourth Resolutions com- 
ment on the Bill, and they conclude by 

" Fifthly, Resolved, we highly approve of the 
wise, prudent and constitutional mode of opposition 
adopted by our worthy Delegates in the General 

see ; prejudiced men who will not see, and moderate men who think 
better of England than it deserves, and these will be the cause of 
more calamity than all the other three." Later, in The Crisis he be- 
comes more bitter in denunciation. 



348 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

Congress to the late tyrannical acts of the British 
Parliament." 

The frequent expression, in the memorials of the 
day, of devotion to the " illustrious House of Han- 
over " may well provoke a smile, but it was a sincere 
devotion. The sentiment of loyalty to the sovereign 
was the growth of centuries, and existed irrespective 
of the individual wearer of the crown. The change 
of dynasty which enthroned the stolid Electors of 
Hanover was a triumph of the best principles of 
English constitutional freedom, and as such exalted 
the line of Georges. Nor was the divinity that doth 
hedge a king easily forgotten. Not the King, but his 
bad advisers, bore the brunt of American hatred. 
Even Washington spoke most often of the " Minis- 
terial troops." 

On the day following the adoption of the New- 
town Resolutions," about ninety freeholders of 
Oyster Bay had convened to consider the growing 
trouble between the colonies and the mother 
country, when there " appeared such a number of 
friends to our happy, regular and established gov- 
ernment under the Crown and Parliament of Great 
Britain as to deem the meeting illegal and that no 
business could with propriety be done." 

A little earlier, December 6th, the people of 
Jamaica had gathered at the inn of Increase Car- 
penter and had instructed the constable, Othniel 
Smith, to "warn the ff reeholders " to a meeting at 
the Court House to discuss the state of public affairs. 
The records of this meeting evince a marked har- 

' December 30, 1774. See Am. Archives, ser. iv., vol. i., p. 1076. 



THE JAMAICA RESOLUTIONS. 349 

mony between now apparently conflicting principles. 
Fidelity to the King and a bold assertion of their 
own constitutional rights as freemen are equally 
emphasised. After asserting their " intention to 
maintain the dependency of the Colonies upon the 
Crown of Great Britain and to render true allegiance 
to his Majesty King George," the Jamaica Free- 
holders resolve : 

^''Secondly, It is our undoubted right to be taxed 
only by our own consent, given by ourselves, or our 
representatives, and that the taxes imposed upon us 
by Parliament are unjust and unconstitutional, and 
are a manifest infringement of our dearest and most 
inviolable privileges. 

*' TJiirdly, We have esteemed it our greatest civil 
happiness and glory to be subject to the Crown and 
Excellent Constitution of Great Britain. We are 
one people with the Mother Country, connected by 
the strongest ties of duty, interest and religion & 
we lament as the greatest misfortune, the late un- 
happy disputes. 

'* Fifthly, We heartily sympathise with our breth- 
ren of Boston in their present unexampled suffer- 
ings, and regard the Acts of Parliament under which 
they groan, as unjust, cruel, unconstitutional and 
oppressive in the highest degree, and levelled not 
only at them in particular, but at the liberties of the 
other Colonies and the British Empire in General. 

" Sixthly, That we do most gratefully acknowledge 
the difificult and important services rendered to the 
country by the late General Congress at Philadel- 



350 EAKLY LONG rSLAXD. 

phia' and that we highly approve their measures 
and will use all prudent and constitutional en- 
deavours to carry those measures into execution. 

'* 5rtr ;///// r. We appoint for our Committee of 
Correspondence 

Revd. Abraham Keteltas Dr. John Innis 
Capt. Ephraim Bailey Mr. \Vm. Ludlam 

Joseph French " Joseph Robertson 

Mr. Richard Betts " Elias Bailey." 

A little later, January 19, 1775, this Committee, 
" with hearts penetrated with unutterable grati- 
tude," address the Provincial Delegates to the late 
Congress, expressing the most '* hearty acquiescence 
in the Measures adopted." 

A more calm, judicial attitude could not easily 
have been taken than in the above Resolutions, an 
attitude at once loval to the Mother Country, cog- 



t> 



nisant of the daughter's wrongs and firm in the 
assertion of her rights. But the action of this meet- 
ing did not please all the townspeople who suspected 
lurking rebellion therein, and they protest, saying: 
" We never gave our assent, as we disapprove of all 

' There had been much opposition to the meetii^g of the Conti- 
nental Congress, August 2. 1774. Under that date, Cadwallader 
Colden wrote to the Earl of Dartmouth: " Great pains have been 
taken in the several cvuntics of this lV>vince to induce the People to 
send Commissioners to juin the Committee in this City, but they have 
only prevailed in Suffolk Co. in the East End of Long Island which 
was settled from Connecticut and the Inhabitants still retain a great 
similarity of Manners vv: Sentiments." 

Again, in October, he writes ; "In Queen's County where I have 
a House and reside the Summer Season, six Persons have not been 
got toother for the l\irpose, and the 1 nliabitants remain firm in their 
Resolution not to join the Congress." 



''THE HEMPSTEAD CONFESSION OF FAITH." 35 1 

unlawful meetings; We resolve to continue faithful 
subjects of his Majesty King George the Third, our 
most gracious Sovereign." To this are signed one 
hundred and thirty-six of the most reputable names 
among which are the majority of the freeholders of 
the town. 

On the last day of March, 1775, the motion to send 
Delegates from Queens Countv to the Provincial 
Congress to be assembled at New York was lost by 
twelve votes (ninet}--four against eighty-two). In 
Jamaica and Hempstead were the strongest Episco- 
pal Churches on the Island. There were the estates 
of many of the Crown of^cers, and with an intelli- 
gent yeomanry, were many families of more than 
colonial distinction. In such a community, the seeds 
of revolt could not easily germinate, nor the idea of 
any revolution in atTairs civil, political, or social find 
friends. 

In Hempstead village, then a hamlet of a dozen 
houses with a few outh'ing plantations, the free- 
holders met on April 4tli. and unanimously bore testi- 
mony against " all provincial assemblies or congresses 
whatsoever," in a " Confession of Faith," drawn up 
by Valentine Hewlett Peters, a most noteworthy 
document known in history as the " Hempstead 
Resolutions." ' 

In Oyster Bay, at the yearly Town Meeting, March 
4th, Thomas Smith Moderator, Samuel Townsend 
read a letter from the Chairman of the New York 
Committee, urging the choice of a Deputy, a subject 
which had been previously submitted to the Meet- 

* See Appendix i. 



352 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

ing. A vote was taken, resulting in forty-two in 
favour and two hundred and five against the election 
of a Deput}'. A week later, the forty-two met and 
chose as their own delegate, Zebulon Williams, 
" being determined " as they wrote the Committee 
in New York, " to do all in our power to keep in 
Unity with you." 

When, on April 20th, the representatives of the 
various counties of the Province' met in Convention 
at the Exchange in New York, they formed them- 
selves into a Provincial Congress.' In reference to 
the very irregular election of ]\Ir. Williams and his 
associates, the body resolved that " the gentlemen 
from Queen's County be allowed to be present at 
the deliberations, and would take into consideration 
any advice they may offer, but cannot allow them a 
vote, with which the gentlemen express themselves 
satisfied, and say they do not think themselves en- 
titled to vote." 

' Long Islaiui was represented by the following men : 
Front A'hig's Count}' : 
Simon Bocrum. Esq. Capt. Richard Stillnian 

Mr. Theodorus rolhemus Mr. Deuice Denice 

Mr. John Van der Bilt. 
From Queen s County : 

Col. Jacob Blackwell Mr. John Talman 

Joseph Robinson Zebulon Williams. 

From Suff^itlk County : 

Col. \Vm. Floyd Col. Nathaniel WoodhuU 

" Phineas Fanning Thomas Trcadwell 

John Sloss Hubbard. 
'" A thing unknown to the British-Constitution." — Thomas Jones, 
History 0/ Niw York during the KcZ'olution, vol. i., p. 37. 



ASSOCIATIONS FORMED. 353 

The Congress broke up April 22d, Tlic next 
morning came the news from Lexington and Con- 
cord. The New York Committee at once sent out 
circulars requesting deputies to be chosen for a new 
Congress' to come together May 24th. 

As " the shot heard round the world " echoed 
through the green dells and among the pleasant 
farmsteads of Long Island, there, as elsewhere, it 
roused the people to earnest but conflicting action. 
Associations were formed, drawing up a pledge by 
which the signers bound themselves to stand by one 
another, and by the Continental Congress.'' 

Anticipating the occupation of Long Island by 
the British Army, companies of minute-men were 
formed and drilled, chiefly in Suffolk County, where 

* " There were chosen for the Township of Broecklyn in 

King's Co. : 
Henry Williams, Esq. Johannes E. Lolt 

Jeremiah Remsen Theodorus Polhemus 

John Leffertse John \'anderbilt 

Nich. Couwenhoven. 

For Suffolk Co. : 

Col. N. WoodhuU John Foster 

John Sloss Hubbard Ezra L'Hommedieu 

Thos. Treadwell, Esq. Thos. Wickham 

James Havens Selah Strong. 

For Queen s Co. : 

Col. Jacob Blackwell Sam'l Townsend 

Jon. Lawrence Joseph French 

Dan'l Rapalje, Esq. Thos. Hicks 

Zebulon Williams Jos. Robinson 

Capt. Richard Thorne Nath'l Tom." 
' See Appendix ii., p. 502. 

23 



354 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

suspicion of and enmity toward supposed Loyalists 
was most virulent/ 

In September, all Loyalists, all who were not 
Associators, or who were suspected of having be- 
come such through fear, were disarmed by order of 
the Provincial Congress/ On October 6th the Con- 
tinental Congress resolved " that it be recommended 
to the several Provincial Assemblies and Commit- 

' General Wooster writes to Governor Trumbull a letter from 
Oyster Ponds, August 14, 1775, which indicates the state of feeling: 

" The committees of Brookhaven and Smithtown have taken and 
sent to me the Reverend James Lyon a Church of England clergy- 
man, a man of infamous character, but a pretty sensible fellow who 
has corresponded with yames Lloyd of Boston. This Parson Lyon 
by what I can learn is the mainspring of all the Tories on this part of 
Long Island. . . . The committees of the several adjacent towns 
thinking him a very dangerous person to remain among them, have 
desired me to take care of him. I therefore send him to the care of 
the committee of Hartford until they can receive your known 
orders." 

Gen. Wooster was in Suffolk, pursuant to an order of Congress, 
August 7, 1775, to go with four companies of troops to the East End 
of Long Island to assist in protection of the cattle from the raids of 
the " Ministerial Army." 

2 " September 16 : 1775. 

" Resolved, That all such arms as are fit for the use of the troops 
raised in this Colony, as shall be found in the hands of any person 
who has not signed the General Association shall be impressed for the 
use of the said Troops. The Arms shall be appraised by three indif- 
ferent persons who shall give a Certificate which shall entitle the 
owners to receive the aj^praised value thereof. " (There is no record 
of its having been ever paid.) 

" Ordered, that the Captains of the Third Regiment of the Troops 
of this Colony, now in Suffolk County, carry these Resolutions into 
effect in Queen's Co. and that Col. Lasher be instructed to send two 
or more companies of his Battery to give such assistance as may be 
necessary in Queen's County." 



THE J A MA ICA ELEC TION. 355 

tees of Safety, to arrest and secure every person in 
their respective Colonies who going at large, may in 
their opinion endanger the safety of the Colonies or 
the liberties of the people." "In their opinion" 
was a phrase susceptible of the most free inter- 
pretation. 

When the election for deputies' was held at 
Jamaica, November 7, 1775, every freeman of the 
county voted. The polls were open from Tuesday 
to Saturday and one thousand and nine votes were 
cast. Of these, seven hundred and eighty-eight 
were against sending delegates." Queens County 
was thus unrepresented in the Provincial Congress 
until its session of May, 1776.' Shortly after the 
election, the Congress published " A List of Queen's 

' The candidates were : 

Col. J. Blackwell Newtown 

Sam'l Townsend, Esq. . . .Oyster Bay 

Wm. Townsend Oyster Bay 

Waters Smith Jamaica 

Benj. Sands Cow Neck 

Jeronimus Remsen, Jr. ..Newtown 
Stephen Van Wyck Flushing 

^ For Poll List, see Historical MSS. of the American Revolution, 
vol. i., pp. 1 8 1-6. 

^ An election was held April 17, 1776, in which were chosen as 
Deputies : 

Jacob Blackwell Newtown 

Jon. Lawrence Newtown 

Cornelius Van Wyck Success 

Samuel Townsend Oyster Bay 

James Townsend Oyster Bay 

Capt. John Williams North Side 

Thos. Hicks Flushing 

or " any three of them." 



356 EARLY LOiVG /SLA. WD. 

Co: Tories,"' known as " The Black List," and fol- 
lowed within a week by still more arbitrarj^ action. 

" In Proyinci^u. Congsess of New Vokk 
Dec, 12. 1774. 

" Whereas this Congress has received undoubted 
information that a Number of Disaffected Persons 
in Queen's County have been supplied with arms 
and ammunition from on board the Asia, Ship of 
War, and are arraying themselves in Miiitarj^ man- 
ner to oppose the measures taking by the United 
Colonies for the Defense of their just Rights and 
Privileges, it is ordered that of 

yamaica Tozvnship 

Capt. Benj. Whitehead Wm. Weyman 

Chas. Ardin John Sholes 

Josp. French esq*^ Jeronimus Rapalye 

Johannes Polhemus 

Ne^vti>zim 
Nath'l Moore J. Moore Jun. 

J Moore Sen. Capt. Sam'l Hulett 

Flushing Ttnvnship 
John Willet 

Oyster Bay 

Justice Thomas Smith, Hog Island 

John Hewlett Capt. Geo. Weeks 

John Townsend Dr. David Brooks 

Httnpstead 

Gabriel G. Ludlow Justice Sam'l Clowes 
Richard Hewlett Gilbert Van Wyck 

Capt. Charles Hicks Danl-Kissam. Esq., Cow Neck 
Doctor Martin Capt. Jacob Mott 

Thos. Cornell, Rockaway, 



ACTIOX OF THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS. 357 

being charged as Principall men among the Dis- 
affected in the said County do attend this Congress 
on Tuesday morning next, the 19th inst. to give 
satisfaction in the Premises & that they be pro- 
tected from any Injury or Insult in their coming to 
and returning from this Congress. 

" Nath'l Woodhull 
" President." ' 

On Dec. 21st, after a similar preamble, the Con- 
gress resolve that " Such conduct is inimical to 
the Common Cause of the United Colonies and 
ought not by any means to be suffered, and meas- 
ures should be taken to put a stop to it." The in- 
habitants of Queens were summoned to appear 
before the Congress on the next Wednesday, and 
failing to appear, the Congress declared them to be 
*' Sfuiltv of a breach of the General Association and 
open Contempt of this Congress and that the said 
delinquents, each and every one of them, be and 
hereby are put entirely out of the protection of this 
Congress, and that no person plead ignorance, their 
names are to be published." A list of seven hun- 
dred and forty names follows.' 

Isaac Sears, whose burning of Rivington's Print- 
ing Office, in November, had brought upon him both 
commendation and opprobrium, then went to Cam- 
bridge to represent, at the Headquarters of the 
Army, the great danger to New York from the 
Long Island " Tories." The New York Assembly 
had meanwhile sent to the General Congress the 

' Hist, MSS. of Am. Rev., vol. i.. p. 202. 
* Am. Archives, ser. iv. vol. iv., p. 372. 



5 



58 EARLY LOXG ISLJXD. 



Jamaica Poll List, with the request that Long Island 
be disarmed. The matter was referred to a com- 
mittee whose members were Samuel Adams, William 
Livingston, and John Jay. In that trio, the pacific 
Jay would be powerless, and the Committee reported 
in favour of the proposed course. The Congress, 
after a preliminary recommendation to the several 
Colonies "by the most speedy and eflficient measures 
to frustrate the mischievous machinations and to 
restrain the wicked practises of these men," con- 
tinued with the preamble of " The Tory Act," 
passed Januarj- 3. 1776: 

" Whereas a majority of the inhabitants of Qut-ens 
County in the Colony of Xtic York, being incapable 
of resolving to live and die freemen, and being more 
disposed to quit their liberties than to part with the 
little proportion of their property necessar)- to 
defend them, have deserted the AtNerican cause by 
refusing to send Deputies as usual to the Conven- 
tion of that Colony, and avowing by a publick 
Declaration an unmanly Design of remaining inac- 
tive spectators of the present contest, vainly flatter- 
ing themselves, perhaps, that should Providence 
declare for our Enemies, they may purchase their 
mercy and favour at an eas}' rate, and if, on the 
other hand, the war should terminate to the advan- 
tage of the Affiericnns, they may enjoy without ex- 
pense of blood or treasure, all the blessings which 
have resulted from the liberty which they in the day 
of trial had deserted, and in defence of which many 
of their more virtuous neighbours and countrymen 
have nobly died, and although the want of publick 



THE TORY ACT. 359 

spirit observable in these men rather excited pity 
than alarm, there being little danger to apprehend 
from them, either from their prowess or example, 
yet it being reasonable that those who refuse to 
defend their country should be excluded from its 
protection, and from doing it injur)', therefore, 

" Resolved, first that all such persons in Queen's 
County as voted against sending Deputies to the 
present Convention of AWv Vor/c, and named in a 
list of delinquents in Queen s County, published by 
the Convention of New York, be put out of the pro- 
tection of the United Colonies and that all trade and 
intercourse with them cease ; and that none of the 
inhabitants be permitted to travel or abide in any 
part of these United Colonies without a certificate 
from the Convention, or Committee of Safety of the 
Colony of Neiu York, setting forth that such inhabi- 
tant is a friend to the American Cause and not of 
the number of those who voted against sending 
Deputies to the said Convention, and that such of 
the Inhabitants as shall be found out of the said 
County w^ithout such certificate shall be appre- 
hended and imprisoned three months. 

" Resolved, That no Attorney or Lawyer ought to 
commence, prosecute or defend any action at Law 
of any kind for any of the said Inhabitants of 
Queen s County who voted against sending Deputies 
to the said Convention as aforesaid, and such 
Attorney or Lawyer as shall contravene this Act, 
is an enemy to the American cause and ought to be 
treated as such. 

'■'■ Resolved, That the Convention, or Committee of 



360 EAJ^LY LONG ISLAND. 

Safet}'. of the Colony o^ Nczv York be requested to 
continue publishing for a month in all these Gazettes 
and newspapers, the names of all such Inhabitants 
of Queens as voted against sending Deputies, and 
to give Certificates to such other of the said Inhabi- 
tants as are friends to Avierican Liberty. 

"And it is recommended to all Committees of 
Safety, Conventions and others to be diligent in 
executing the above Resolutions. 

" Resolved, That Colonel Nathaniel Heard of 
Woodbridge in the Colony of Xexv Jersey, taking 
with him five or six hundred minute-men under dis- 
creet ot^cers, do march to the western part of 
Queens s County, and that Col. Waterbury of Stam- 
ford, in the Colony of Conneeiicut, with the like 
number of minute-men, march to the eastern part of 
the said county, on the same day, that they confer 
together and endeavour to enter into the said 
county on the same day, and that they proceed t'o 
disarm every person in the said count}' who voted 
against sending Deputies to the said Convention 
and cause them to deliver up their arms and ammu- 
nition on oath, and that they take and confine in 
safe custody until further orders all such as refuse 
compliance, and that they apprehend and secure 
until further orders the disaffected of the said 
count}', in a summons for their apprehension before 
the Convention of Nezv York, issued the 12th of 
December last, viz.:" — (see p. 356).' 

At this juncture, when the inflammable feelings of 
both Loyalists and Whigs needed the most judicious 

^ Am. Archives, series iv., vol. iv., p, 1630. 



LETTERS OF CHARLES LEE. 36 1 

and conciliatory measures, the inconsiderate course 
of General Charles Lee ' by the Iroquois, fitly named 
" Boiling Water," wrought much mischief to the 
Colonial cause. On January 5, 1776, he wrote to 
Washington, asking for a body of Connecticut Vol- 
unteers " suf^cient for the expulsion or suppression 
of that dangerous banditti of Tories which have ap- 
peared on Long Island with the expressed intention 
of acting against the authority of Congress. Not to 
crush these serpents before their rattles are grown 
would be ruinous." " Colonel Waterbury was 
detailed for Long Island service, but soon recalled. 
On January i6th, Lee again wrote to Washington 
from New Haven, saying : " Col. Waterbury had 
raised a regiment of 500 men who were to have 
landed in Oyster Bay and attacked the Tories of 
Long Island. Lord Sterling^ was to have attacked 

' The English regarding Lee as doubly a traitor were always bitter 
against him. " An officer at New York to a friend in London " 
1777, says: "Many of our soldiers earnestly wish for a personal 
knowledge of Gen. Lke to avoid either killing 04- wounding liim, 
that a native of ISritain who from disappointed ambition has planted 
the point against the Power that first put a sword in his hand and 
paid for his military education, may be prepared for his grave with 
out the least impression of any martial instrument." 

- Charles Lee Papers, i., 237, in Proceedings New York Historical 
Society, 1871. 

^ William Alexander, titular Karl of Sterling, 1726-S3, was the col- 
lateral dscendantof Lord Sterling, the first English Patentee of Long 
Island. His title was not allowed in England. Educated as a sur- 
veyor, he had succeeded his father as Surveyor-General of New Jer- 
sey, lie had been with General Shirley as aide-de-camp in his 
three campaigns against Canada. Appointed a brigadier-general 
early in 1776 he served with distinction throughout the war, and 
with marked valour at Brandywine, Gerniantown, and Monmouth. 



362 EAKLY LONG I SLA AW. 

them on the other side. All this by order of Con- 
gress, when suddenly the order was rescinded, and 
the tories remain unmolested." 

Woodbury's men were greatly disappointed at 
their disbanding, and Lee re -enlisted them in a regi- 
ment under Colonel Ward, making a force of fifteen 
hundred men, with Sears as Assistant Adjutant-Gen- 
eral. General Lee disdained all civil authority from 
Assemblies provincial or continental, but deigned to 
receive military orders which accorded with his own 
pre-conceived plans. January 21st, General Greene 
wrote to him : " You are to make an attack on the 
tories in Queens county. I hear you are raising 
fifteen hundred troops for tlie expedition. I hope 
you will give the many-headed monster, the tory 
faction, a faithful wound." 

Early in the month, Washington had written to 
General Schuyler complimenting him on his exploits 
in Tryon County, and had added : " I hope Gen. 
Lee will excite a work of the same kind on Long 
Island." Lee's plans, however, came to naught, and 
Washington wrote him on the 23d that he was 
"exceedingly sorry that Congress had counter- 
manded the embarkation of the regiment against the 
tories of Long Island." 

Through January, a few petitions were sent to 
Congress from faltering souls who now " most hum- 
bly show that in voting against Deputies," they 
were led astray by the " Artfull insinuations of 
Designing Men," but for which conduct they are 
" extreamly contrite," and the following " Declara- 
tion " was submitted January 19, 1776: 



COLONEL HEARD'S ORDERS. 363 

" Whereas we the subscribers have given great 
uneasiness to the good people of the neighbouring 
provinces and of the Continent in general by not 
choosing a Committee and not paying any attention 
to the directions of our Provincial Congress and by 
opposing the General Instructions of the Continental 
Congress," they promise, "hereafter, in all cases, 
implicitly to obey all orders enjoined upon us by 
our Provincial and Continental Congress." 

Here follow the names ' of about five hundred 
men, nearly one half of those who had voted against 
the election of deputies. The same persons later 
made oath that the arms and ammunition given 
Colonel Heard were all which they possessed, and 
that they had not " evaded or obstructed the execu- 
tion of his orders from the Continental Congress for 
disarming the inhabitants of Oueen's Co. who are 
disaffected to the opposition now making in America 
to ministerial tyranny." 

The orders to Colonel Heard to proceed against 
the devoted Island still remained in force. They 
were directed against every person who had voted 
against the election of deputies, with the names of 
twenty-six leading men, the " most odious," already 
on " The Black List," who were seized and impris- 
oned. Colonel Heard came to New York on the 
27th, with seven hundred New Jersey Militia and 
three hundred regulars under Major De Hart of 
Lord Sterling's Brigade. He crossed to Newtown 
and reached Jamaica on the 30th. His work was 
done with the greatest rigour. Houses were broken 

' See A»i. Archives, series iv., vol. iv., p. 85S. 



364 EARL V LONG LSL.AND. 

open and pillaged, farm-yards plundered, cattle wan- 
tonly slaughtered, soldiers billeted upon the inhabi- 
tants, all "Addressers," to Lord Howe as Commis- 
sioner of Peace, and those who had sent to Governor 
Tryon, since October on board the Duchess of Gordon, 
off Jamaica Bay, an expression of loyalty, were 
seized and required to take oath not to oppose the 
army of Congress, nor to aid the royal troops. If 
they refused the oath, or to give up their arms, they 
were to be imprisoned. The special severity of this 
brutal raid is explained in the words of Thomas 
Jones, himself a constant sufferer for his loyalty: 
"Queens County was extraordinarily obnoxious to 
the rebels on account of the loyalty of its inhabitants, 
who had constantly, in spite of all opposition and hard 
usage, acknowledged their attachment to their sover- 
eign, had refused to send delegates to the Continental 
Congress, members to the Provincial Assembly, or 
to elect a Committee in the County.' " 

Colonel Heard expected resistance at Hempstead, 
but his force was so large that even Richard Hewlett 
did not venture" the effort to repel, or to then 

^ Jones's LI is!, of lYezv York citiring the Revolutiou , vol. i., p, 
107. 

- 'Lhe Coustititticiial Gazette of February ist says : " On Tuesday 
last, 700 Jersey Militia and 300 Jersey Regulars entered Queen's Co. 
to disarm those who opposed the cause of American Liberty and al- 
though they have repeatedly declared their intention of defending 
their arms at the risk of their lives, yet such is the badness of their 
cause (which no doubt makes cowards of them) that they were dis- 
armed v/ithout opposition and the generality of them have sworn to 
abide Ijy the measures of the Congress." 

This was true of but a small proportion of these steadfast men, 



SUFFERmCS OF THE LOYALISTS. 365 

avenge the invasion. The Loyalists fled from their 
homes, seeking safety as best they could, hiding in 
the dense swamps and vine-entangled forests, in 
barns and hollowed trees, in stacks of ungarnered 
grain, and in the long marsh grass of the salt 
meadows. 

Two days were spent at Jamaica and at Hemp- 
stead, during which time four hundred and seventy- 
one names were signed to the Declaration of January 
19th, and three hundred firearms given up. The 
conduct of the corps under Major De Hart was so 
outrageous,' even in the eyes of his superior ofificer, 

while an old song gives the popular estimate of the invading 
force : 

" Col. Heard has come to town 
A-thinking for to plunder, 
Before he 'd done he had to run, 
He heard the cannon thunder. 

" And when he came to Hempstead town 
He heard the cannon rattle. 
Poor Col. Heard he ran away 
And dared not face the battle. 

" And now he's gone to Oyster Bay, 
Quick for to cross the water. 
He dare no more in Hempstead stay 
For fear of meeting slaughter." 

' Major De Hart writes from Staten Island to Samuel Tucker, — 
" I have the happiness to inform you that our men behaved with the 
greatest degree of civility toward the Inhabitants of Long-Island. 
Some little complaint happened about some N. Y. Volunteers which 
upon examination into proved of very little consequence." — Ain. 
Archives, series iv., vol. iv., p. 851. So much depends upon the 
point of view ! 

A private letter from Jericho says : " Colonel Heard is indefati- 



366 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

that at Hempstead the detachment was ordered 
back to New York, while Colonel Heard continued 
his march of devastation over the wind-swept plains 
to Jericho and Oyster Bay. 

As the result of his raid, he carried away nearly a 
thousand muskets," four sets of colours belonging to 
the Long Island Militia, and nineteen of the dis- 
affected named in The Black List." These gentlemen 
were sent to Philadelphia, to the Continental Con- 
gress, and after a confinement of several weeks were 
returned to the mercies of the New York Assembly. 
In New York they were imprisoned at their own 
expense in a wretched lodging, while letters were 
sent to the various Town Committees to elicit evi- 
dence against them. So slight was this, even to the 
most prejudiced of their accusers, that they were 

gable in discharging his duty : he treats the inhabitants with civility 
and utmost humanity and even the Delinquents express themselves 
well pleased that a detachment of Jersey men and not of New Eng. 
landers was sent to disarm them. 

' These arms were given to Colonel Dayton of New Jersey, — 
yournals of Congress, 1776, p. 91. 

'^ Seven, whose names are in The Black T^ist, had left their homes 
before Colonel Heard's coming : 

Charles Arden, John Moore, Sen., 

Richard Hewlett, John Moore, Jan., 

John Hewlett, Thos. Covnell, 

Jeronimus Rapalje. 
Joshua Bloomer, Rector of Grace Church, Jamaica, wrote to the 
S. P. G. February 7, 1776, as follows: "Last week a number of 
troops under orders of the Continental Congress, disarmed this town- 
ship & Ilemiistead and carried off about 20 of the principal persons 
of Mr. Cutting's and my Congregation, prisoners to Philadelphia, 
they being accused of opposition to -the present measures." — Docu- 
mentary History of New York, vol. iii., p. 337. 



PRISONERS SENT TO PHILADELPHIA. 7,6y 

finally discharged, under bonds to preserve the 
peace. 

In the minutes of the Continental Congress is the 
record of their action : 

" Resolved, that Capt. Benj. Whitehead, Jos. 
Frejich, Johannes PolJiemus, Wm. IVeyman, John 
Shales, NatJil Moore, Capt. Sain I Hewlett, John 
Willet, Thos. Smith, John Toivnsend, Capt. Geo. 
Weeks, Dr. David Brooks, Gabriel G. Ludlotv, Capt. 
Chas. Hicks, Doctor Martin, Savil Clowes, Gilbert 
Van Wick, Dan' I Kissam, and Capt. Jacob Mott, be 
sent to Neiv York and delivered to the order of the 
Convention of that Colony who are requested to 
confine or secure the said persons until an inquiry 
be had by the Convention into their conduct and a 
report thereof be made to this Congress. 

" Col. Heard earnestly requested that the Com- 
mittee of Safety, as the Provincial Congress is not 
convened, give orders as to the Prisoners in his 
charge, so that he may be discharged of the care of 
those Prisoners. 

" It was ordered that the above Prisoners, except 
Gabriel G. Ludlow, Samuel Clotves and Geo. Weeks 
who are not in custody, be placed in any one house 
in the city, all together, at their own expense, and 
that they be confined there under guard at their own 
expense until the Orders of the Provincial Congress 
in the premises." Colonel Heard is then compli- 
mented for his " care & prudence & execution of his 
duty like an officer." * 

The prisoners soon petitioned for release. It was 
' Am. Archive's, series iv., vol. iv., p. nog. 



368 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

then ordered that they be set free on giving bonds' 
for their " appearance before this, or any future 
Congress or Committee of Safety, and that they 
will hereafter deport themselves peaceably and 
make no opposition to the measures of this, or 
of the Continental Congress, nor instigate others 
thereunto." 

Queens County continued to be the object of the 
bitterest hatred of those in authority. Not long 
after the Declaration of Independence, a new indig- 
nity was forced upon Hempstead, " It was the 
object of Congress," says Thomas Jones, "to appre- 
hend the principal gentlemen and transport them to 
Connecticut to dragoon and compel the common 
people to form a militia and join the rebel army." 
For this end, a body of a thousand men from Rhode 
Island under Colonel Cornell were ordered by Wash- 
ington to establish themselves at Hempstead and 
hold in terror the surrounding country. These 
troops were joined by three hundred Queens County 
men in sympathy with them, under whose guidance 
scouting parties were continually sent out in pursuit 
of the Loyalists. The scenes attendant upon Heard's 
raid were repeated and intensified. The Loyalists 
were relentlessly hunted down by this later Claver- 
house and many prisoners taken. These were 
haled before a board consisting of Lord Sterling, 

' The obligation taken was as follows : 

" Know all men by these presents, that we of Queens Co. 

on Nassau Island in the Province of yVt'TC York, are held of and 

firmly bound into in the sum of £soo, lawful money of 

New York, to appear within six days after summoning before any 
Provincial Congress, or Committee of Safety." — Ibid., p. 270. 



PRECAUTIONS IN JAMAICA. 369 

John Morin Scott, Alexander McDougal, and Ad- 
jutant-General Joseph Reade, and, unheard, were 
sentenced to transportation to Connecticut, where 
as prisoners at Simsbury,' or on limited parole, they 
were long detained from their homes. 

In May, the Committee of Safety at Jamaica re- 
solved that " No person be permitted to move into 
this Township unless he produce Certificate from the 
Committee where he has resided, that he has been 
in all things a friend to the cause of American free- 
dom, and whereas sundry persons in passing through 
the town have given just cause for suspicion that 
they were employed in aiding & assisting the un- 
natural enemies of America, therefore it is ordered 
that all such persons be taken up for examination." 

During these eventful months, the people of the 
Eastern Towns had little hesitation over their course. 
The Governor and Council at New York had never 
received but slight recognition, and the allegiance 
to their more distant sovereign was in words rather 
than in fact. In a meeting held at Easthampton, 
June 17, 1775, the people pledged themselves to 
support the " Continental " cause. A Committee 

' The Simsbury Copper Mines on Copper Hill, East Granby, then 
in the town of Simsbury, were first opened in 1705, and worked at 
intervals. They were abandoned after half a century of indifferent 
success, and in 1773 Connecticut spent seventy pounds in fitting them 
up as " a public gaol and workhouse for the Colony." A main shaft 
went down a hundred feet, where a trap-door opened into " Hell," 
a gallery on which were the prisoners' cells, and leading to the " Bot- 
tomless Pit." Johnston says : " Probably not more than thirty 
tories at a time were ever confined there," but contemporary records 
make the inmates of this " woful mansion" many moi-e. See ^^. 
membrancer, vol. xii., p. 119. 

84 



370 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

of Correspondence was chosen, and the Articles of 
Association sent by the Continental Congress were 
approved and signed. Their example was followed 
by the other eastern townships. These committees 
were empowered to choose delegates to the Pro- 
vincial Congress, and " to do all that should be 
necessary in defence of our just rights and liberties 
against the unconstitutional acts of the British Min- 
istry and Parliament." 

The sentiment of the East and West was every- 
where distinctly understood. Captain Bauermeister, 
a Hessian ofificer " In Camp at Helgatte," just before 
the Battle of Brooklyn, writes : " The Inhabitants 
of Long Island recognise the Royal Authority 
except in the County of Suffolk, where several thou- 
sands rebels still remain, not collected together, but 
scattered, ready to fight at the first opportunity." 
Yet Suffolk was not altogether disloyal. Gilbert 
Potter had written from Huntington to the Pro- 
vincial Congress, in December, 1775, asking that " a 
sufficient number of men be immediately sent to 
effectually subdue Queens Co. and to intimidate 
the people amongst us, or a great many here would 
soon be no better ruffle than the tories of Queens 
County." 

A letter from William Smith to the Honourable, 
the Provincial Congress of New York, dated Suffolk 
County, January 24, 1776, says: " The great expos- 
edness of the East end and the extensiveness of the 
county, induces us to desire that such number of 
Continental troops may be stationed here as the 
Congress in their wisdom shall judge necessary. 



A POST-RIDER DESIRED. 37 1 

We make no doubt the Continent proposes to pro- 
tect and defend this Island and we hope you will 
use your endeavour that a sufficient force be posted 
here for that purpose." ' 

The next week, the Committee of Safety for East- 
hampton, Southampton, and Shelter Island, con- 
vened at Sag Harbor, beg the Congress " to defend 
them from British attacks and ministerial ven- 
geance." They further desire that " some method 
be fallen upon to establish a Post from New York 
to the East end of the Island, that we may be 
favoured with the earliest intelligence." '^ 

Associators were organised into militia, and the 
Provincial Congress ordered that " forces be sta- 
tioned to prevent depredations on Long Island, and 
to promote the safety of the whole.'" But the de- 
feat of Washington's army in the Battle of Brooklyn 
worked some change in sentiment. A fortnight 
after that disastrous event, Colonel Henry Living- 
ston writes from Saybrook to the Commander-in- 
chief : " Before I left Long-Island, the towns of 
Easthampton and Southainpto7i had sent for their 
pardons to Lord LJoive. Since I left it, they have 
almost universally taken the oath of allegiance to 
his Britannick Majesty, tendered them by Col. 

' Am. Archives, series iv., vol. iv., p. 1108. 

''■ It was thereupon " ordered that Mr. L'Hommedieu call upon Mr. 
Hazard, the Postmaster, and endeavour to ascertain what Revenue 
will arise from a Post-rider on Nassau-Island, and what will be the 
expense to the Publick of such Post-rider." 

^ On August 29th, the town of Southold submitted to the Congress, 
through Robert Hempstead, Clark, a bill of £2\ lys. M., for 
" mounting 4 cannon as field-pieces for the protection of the East 
end of Long-Island." 



372 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

Gardiner. ... I propose sailing from this place 
for Huntington to-morrow with about 1120 troops 
and hope to have an opportunity of being useful, I 
believe if 10,000 men were sent upon the East end 
of Long Island, they would give a very unexpected 
turn to affairs." ' 

Events crowded in these pivotal days. Even 
before the evacuation of Boston, attention was cen- 
tring on New York. There, was to be the great 
stand in the conflict now imminent. Long Island 
was strategic ground, and for either party it was un- 
equalled as a base of supplies." A letter to Lord 
Howe recommends Nassau as " the only spot in 
America for carrying on the war with eflficacy against 
the rebels. In this fertile Island the army could sub- 
sist without any succour from England or Ireland. 
It has a plain on it twenty-four miles long, which 
has a fertile country about it. Forming their camp 
on the above plain, they could in five or six days 
invade and reduce any of the Colonies at pleasure." 
The editor of The Gentleman's Magazine, in which 
the letter is published,' asks, " What can then retard 
the conquest of America?" 

* Am. Archives, series v., vol. ii., p. 296. For a census of Suffolk 
at this time, giving heads of families, see ibid., series iv., vol. iv., 
pp. 1236-52. 

- Lee, who reached New York early in February with seventeen 
hundred men, wrote Washington on the igth : " I wait for force to 
prepare a post in Long Island for three thousand men. I think this 
a capital object, for should the enemy take possession of New York, 
while Long Island is in our hands, they would find it almost impos- 
sible to subsist." 

^ TJic Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xlvi., p. 234. See also Howe's 
Letter from Camp at Newtown, pp. 476-8. 



WASHINGTON EXCEEDS HIS AUTHORITY. 373 

It was a time of anxious suspense for the thought- 
ful and far-seeing among the people of Long Island, 
A presentiment of the fate of this much harried 
land hung darkly over its once cheerful plains. The 
Continental Congress in February recommended the 
Provincial Government to " seize upon the more 
troublesome and dangerous of the tories," and to 
call to their aid the Continental troops. Colonel 
Ward was then in Brooklyn, beginning the fortifica- 
tion of the Heights,' his soldiers quartered in out-ly- 
ing farm-houses. General Washington, on his arrival 
in New York, ordered him " to secure the whole body 
of Tories on Long Island." This gave the most 
widespread alarm, and even the Congress of New 
York endeavoured to check the Commander-in-chief 
by telling him that the " trial and punishment of 
citizens belonged to the Congress and not to any 
military character however exalted." To this he 
replied that " when the enemy was at the door, 
form must be dispensed with." His duty to the 
Continental Congress and to his own conscience had 
dictated the measure : " I should be in the highest 
degree culpable should I suffer, at so dangerous a 
crisis, a banditti of professed foes of Liberty and 
their country to remain at liberty." 

Colonel Ward was aided by Lieutenant-Colonel 
Isaac Sears, whose over-zeal outran even the relent- 

1 " Prov. Cong. Die Martes, 10 ho. A.M. Feb. 6. 

"It is ordered that Such entrenched encampment be made on 
Nassau Island and at such place or places on the Island as Jllajor- 
General Lee or such other Continental officer as shall command at 
New York shall think necessary." — Avi, Archives, series iv., vol. 
iv., p. 1 109. 



374 EARLY LONG LSLAND. 

less spirit of his superior officers. He devised a new 
form of test oath, which, he exultingly declared, 
" they swallowed as hard as a four-pound shot.' A 
refusal to take this oath was regarded as an avowal 
of hostility, on which the delinquents were to be ar- 
rested and sent into Connecticut, where in the drip- 
ping dungeons of the Simsbury Mines it was deemed 
they would be less dangerous to their country. 

The Whig hatred was concentrated on the worthy 
Cadwallader Colden, on John Rapalje of Brooklyn, 
and especially on Richard Hewlett of Hemsptead,* 

' Sears writes from Jamaica to General Lee, March 17th : " Yes- 
terday I arrived at Newtown and tendered the oath to 4 of the 
grate Torries which they swallowed as hard as a 4-lb shot that they 
were trying to git down. On this day, I came here at 11 o'clock when 
I sent out scouting parties and have been able to ketch but 5 Torries 
and they of the first rank which swallowed the oath. The houses 
are so scattered that it is impossible to ketch many without hosses to 
ride after them ; but I shall exert myself to ketch the greater part of 
the ring-ledors & believe I shall effect it, but not in less than 5 days 
from this time. I can assure your Honour that there are a set of 
villins in this Co. [I] beleve the better part are waiting for soport, 
and intend to take up arms against us, and it is my opinion that noth- 
ng else will do but to remove the ring-ledors to a place of secureity. 
"From your most ob'd Humble Surv' 

" Isaac Sears," 
Am. Archives, series v., vol. v., p. 105, 

"^ Richard Hewlett, of the South Side Hewletts, a descendant of 
" Hulett of Buckinghamshire," was trained to arms in the " Old 
French and Indian War," and the earlier King George's War. He 
was an ardent and a most active Loyalist. He defended Setauket 
against a raid from Connecticut, and in 1778, in command of one 
hundred and thirty Loyalists from the West, pillaged Southold. In 
1781, he was retired on half-pay. He was one of the grantees of 
Saint John and the first surveyor of the city. He died in Gagetown 
in 1789, aged seventy-seven. 



THE HUNTED LOYALISTS. 375 

the most valiant leader of the loyal party. Lee had 
given orders to " seize him at all Hazards. Richard 
Hewlett is to have no conditions offered him, but to 
be secured without ceremony." 

Lee's men in ample force were sent out from 
Newtown, from Flushing, and from Jamaica. There 
was no safety even for those who had taken the 
oath. The Loyalists concealed themselves as best 
they could. Many spent the winter in the dense 
thickets of undergrowth in every forest. There, 
they held their midnight rendezvous ; thence, they 
stole secretly on moonless nights to visit their 
homes, too often pillaged and bare. In July, Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Benjamin Birdsall writes from South 
Oyster Bay to Colonel Sands, that, " Thirty or forty 
Tories are in Massapequa Swamp and he is about to 
take four hundred men to ferret them out." Con- 
gress endeavoured to establish a patrol over Queens 
County. May 1st, the Committee of Safety ordered 
an enrolment of the entire Island.' Loyalists (who 
had been already disarmed) were heavily fined for 
not appearing at the military musters, properly 
equipped. Their property was seized and sold at 
auction, or appropriated to public uses, while the 
absentees, absent from whatever cause, were pub- 
lished as enemies of their country. Neutrality was 
no longer safe. Armed bodies of Whigs continually 
broke into the houses of peaceable men, forcing 

' There was reported as fit for military service, from 

Kings County, 5S0 men ; the quota drawn, 58. 
Queens " 1770 " " " " 75. 

Suffolk " 2000 " " " " 200. 



^-6 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

them into the army, or haling them to loathsome 
jails where the severity of their treatment was the 
forerunner of the equal atrocities inflicted upon the 
victims of the Sugar House, the Provost, and the 
Prison ships. When the Provincial Congress re- 
monstrated with General Lee for his illegal arrest of 
Mr. Gale, taken to Fairfield. Connecticut, he ad- 
mitted that he had gone beyond his authority, but 
pleaded that " irregular as it was, I had the assurance 
that he was a most dangerous man and should not 
be suffered to remain on Long Island where an 
enemy is more dangerous than on any other spot in 
America." General Lee fretted against what he 
thought the too moderate measures of the Congress, 
and declared the bonds given for good behaviour, 
" answer no purpose but to render 'em more bitter 
and virulent. The first regiment of our Gracious 
Sovereigns Cut-throats which arrive here, will indu- 
bitably cancel their bonds." * 

Lord Sterling was appointed to his command in 
March, and as Lee was setting out for his post in 
the South, he again expressed, in a letter to Wash- 
ington," his estimate of these bonds, and urges the 

' Lee wrote to General Reade on Februan- 2Sth, blaming Congress 
that " the Tories on Long Island are set at liberty on giving bonds 
for good behaviour, which would be prodigiously obligatory when a 
few regiments & ships of war appear to encourage them to act up to 
the loyal principles they have professed. This measure must & ought 
to be considered an act of absolute idiotism as reconciliation & 
reunion with Great Britain is now as much a chimera as ina>rpora- 
ting with the people of Tibet." 

^ Lee writes : " I think it my duty to observe that all these measures 
will be totally fruitless unless precautions are taken with reference to 



THE HICKEY PLOT. 377 

defence of New York. In the meantime orders 
came fast from the Assembly which directed the 
affairs of the revolting colony, with intent to compel 
the co-operation of Long Island. Armed sloops 
were sent to cruise along the southern shore, but 
always with "some inlet under the lie to secure a 
Retreate from a Supearior force." 

Continued attacks were directed against the loyal, 
or those inactive against the Home Government. 
In May, were rumours of a dire conspiracy among 
the Loyalists, called "a plot as deep as Hell to bring 
the country to ruin." One John Hendrickson was 
arrested by the Congress. His long examination 
before that body educed no evidence against him, 
but showed very plainly the excited state of Queens 
County. That " the people of Hempstead have 
been in high spirits of late," was perhaps the most 
ominous fact revealed. Peter Curtenius, the Com- 
missioner General of the New York Line, calls the 
suspected design " a most infernal plot, against the 
lives of Gen's Washington & Putnam " ; and Solo- 
mon Drown wrote of it : " It would have been as 
fatal a stroke to us as the gun-powder Treason to 
England. The hellish conspirators were a number 

the professed enemies of American Liberty, seated in the veiy spots 
where they can do the most mischief, Queen's Co. and Staten 
Islands. The bonds they have given are too ridiculous to be men- 
tioned. The Association they have signed, they consider forced 
upon them, and consequently null. I do not consider the disarming 
the tories would incapacitate them from acting against us. I should 
therefore think it prudent to secure their children as hostages. If a 
measure of this kind is not adopted, the children's children of 
America will rue the fatal omission." 



3/8 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

of Tories, the Mayor of the City ' among them, and 
three of Gen. Washington's life-guards." ^ These 
utterances show the inflammable feelings on either 
side. Public sentiment was the tinder which any 
spark of suspicion set ablaze. Some probability 
there was of a plot concealed on board the Asia, but 
its design and details were never known, and it was 
not supposed to extend beyond Queens County. 
Ninety-eight persons were accused of implication 
therein, the list being headed by that arch-traitor, 
as he was deemed by the Whigs, the French-and- 
Indian fighter, Richard Hewlett. 

This alarm precipitated the action of the Congres- 
sional Committee for Queens County. On May 2ist, 
Washington wrote to Putnam : " I have reason to 
believe that the Provincial Congress of this Colony 
has in contemplation a scheme for seizing the prin- 
cipal tories and disaffected persons on Long Island, 
in this city and the country round about, and that 
to carry the scheme into execution they will be 
obliged to have recourse to military power for assist- 
ance. If this should be the case, you are hereby 
required during my absence to offer every aid which 
the said Congress shall require." ' 

On June 5th, Congress passed resolutions against 

' Major Matthews, living at Flatbush, the successor of Whitehead 
Hicks. The evidence against him was his communication with 
Governor Tryon, on the Asia, and carrying moneys from him to 
certain gunsmiths in the city. 

- One of these, a private, Thomas Hickey, was tried by Court- 
Martial, and hanged, June 2Sth. For the trial, see Am. Archives, 
series iv., vol. vi., p. 10S4. 

^ See Am. Archives, series iv., vol. vi., p. 534. 



SEIZURE OF DISAFFECTED PERSONS. 



379 



suspected and dangerous persons in Queens County, 
which were carried out ten days later, Gouverneur 
Morris drafting the warrant issued against them.' 

At the same time the supervision of the entire 
Island became more strict, and all orders more 
stringent. When the Long Island Regiments were 
ordered to join the Continental Army, scarcely a 
half the number enrolled could then be mustered. 
The drafted men had escaped, and were hidden 
in the Brush Plains, the swamps, and salt-water 
marshes. Colonel Marinus Willet was sent against 

* For Resolutions, see Am. Archives, series iv., vol. vi., p. 1152. 
The persons to be arrested were the following : 

'' First List. 



Richard Hewlet, Rockaway 

Thos. Cornell " 

Step. Hulet 

Dr. Chas. Arden 

J. Beagle 

J. Moore, Sen 



D. Beatty, Hempstead 
John Boden 

Chase, Jamaica 

Jno. Hulet, Oyster Bay 
Israel Denton, of Near 
Rockaway 



John Kendal, at Dan'l Thorn's, P'lushing. 



Gabriel Ludlow 
Dr. Sam'l Martin 
Thos. Jones 
Archibald Hamilton 
David Colden 
Richard Colden 
Geo. Duncan Ludlow 
Whitehead Hicks 
Sam'l Clowes 
Geo. Foliot 
Sam'l Doughty 
D. Kissam 
Gilbert Van Wyck 



Second List. 

David Brooks 

Chas. Hicks 

John Tovvnsend 

Benj. Whitehead 

Thos. Smith 

John Polhemus 

John Sholes 

Nath'l Moore 

Sam'l Hallet 

Wm. Weyman 

Capt. Thos. Hicks, Rockaway 

Benj. Lester, Hempstead 

J. Willet." 



380 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

a party of eighteen who were secreted in a wood 
near Jamaica. With his greatly superior force, he 
stormed the hillock where they were concealed by a 
sheltering screen of green-briar, and using the tactics 
of the Indian warfare in which he had won an 
honourable name, he forced their surrender. 

On June 20th, the Provincial Congress occupied 
itself in recording information against the Oueens 
County men arraigned as " Enemies to America." 
On the 22d, a Committee met at Scott's Tavern in 
Wall Street, and proceeded to a minute examination 
of Whitehead Hicks,* to " show cause why he 
should be considered a friend to the Cause and 
Rights of America." Mr. Hicks's reply is a good 
expression of the position held by many of the best 
men of that time : " The cause he can show is only 
negative : he defies Envy itself to show anything in 
his conduct that is against his Country; that he has 
for many years, unsolicited, held honourable and 
lucrative Crown offices, and has repeatedly sworn 
allegiance to the Crown and in this situation would 
not willingly, personally take up arms on the part 
of the country ; that his father and brothers are 
strongly attached to and engaged in the American 
cause ; that he, therefore, as well as from principle, 
will never be induced to take up arms against his 
country." When asked, if he thought the present 
measures of the Colony in defence by arms justi- 
fiable, he replied that " Arms were the last resort, 
and justifiable only when necessary as a last re- 
sort." 

' See Aiu. Archives, series iv., vol. vi., p. 1159. 



DEVASTATION OF QUEENS COUNTY. 381 

In the session of the Queens County Committee, 
June 24th : 

" A motion was made that all persons under re- 
cognisance to the Congress, taken by Colonel Heard, 
be sent for by the Congress and more safely secured, 
and that application be made to the Congress for 
that purpose. Passed in the Aff. 

" A motion was made that 500 Provincial or Con- 
tinental troops be immediately sent into Hempstead 
to put the resolves of Congress and of this Com- 
mittee into execution and to be billeted at the dis- 
cretion of the ofificers of the 2d Regiment of Queens 
County upon the disaffected and deserted persons 
until the same be put into execution. Passed in 
the Aff. 

" Liketvise ordered, that application be made to 
the Provincial Congress to prescribe some mode to 
secure all disaffected and dangerous persons, as well 
above fifty as under, in Queens County. 

"Joseph Robinson."' 

Queens County was plundered of cattle and of 
ripening grain. Jeronimus Remsen writes to Colo- 
nel John Sands on July 3d : " I have this day 
waited on his Excellency, Gen. Washington, in refer- 
ence to removing the cattle, horses & sheep on the 
South side of Queen's Co. according to resolution of 
Congress. He declares that in case the tories made 
any resistance he would send men with orders to 
shoot all the creatures, and also all who hindered 
the execution of the said resolve." A few days 

' See Am. Archives., series iv., vol. vi., p. 1055. 



382 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

later, Benjamin Kissam ventured to intercede with 
the President of Congress: "There are in Queens 
County not less than 7000 horned cattle, 7000 sheep 
& 7000 horses which cannot possibly live on the 
Brushy Plains where they would be entirely desti- 
tute of water & having other very scanty means of 
subsistence." He pleaded the distress which the 
execution of the order would cause, as " without 
the cattle the people cannot gather the present har- 
vest nor prepare for another." He thinks that if 
allowed to retain them, the farmers will pledge 
themselves " to secure the cattle in case of immedi- 
ate danger," — danger of their affording sustenance 
to the British forces. 

About this time Gouverneur Morris wrote to 
Washington in regard to the " great number of per- 
sons from Queen's Co. now confined in our jails," 
of the " inconvenience " of crowding them, as well 
as the mistake of " filling their minds with the sour- 
ness of opposition & at the same time souring and 
enraging all their connections and giving a just 
alarm to every person suspected of holding similar 
principles, & raise up numerous enemies actuated by 
revenge and despair," while, " if security be taken 
for their peaceable demeanour," Congress will *' risk 
much from their correspondence with the enemy 
which it would be difificult to prevent." ' 

Jealousies in the service were not the least of the 

difificulties with which the Provincial Congress had 

to contend. The Mounted Militia protested against 

their enrolment with the "Common Militia," they 

* See Am, Archives, series v., vol. i., p. 334. 



FJilSONERS SENT TO CONNECTICUT. 383 

having been at much expense to equip themselves 
as troopers. Informers barter for office, and personal 
pique often determines the side taken in the mo- 
mentous issues of the hour. 

August loth, the New York Convention/ having 
information that Kings County had determined not 
to oppose the landing of the British Army, then 
anchored in the Bay, a Committee' was appointed 
to go there, to secure the disaffected, to remove the 
grain, and, " if necessary," to lay waste the whole 
country. 

Early in August, Thomas Jones, Judge of the 
Supreme Court of the Province, and about twenty 
others,' were arrested by Washington's order, and 

' The body which met in the morning of July 9, 1776, as " the 
Provincial Congress of the Province of New York," became in the 
afternoon, after the reading of the Declaration of Independence re- 
ceived from Philadelphia, the "Convention of the Representatives of 
the State of New York." 

* The members of the Committee were William Duer, Colonel 
Remsen, Colonel DeWitt, and Mr. Hobart. 

^ " Long Island Prisoners sent to Norwich, Conn. (New London), 
Aug. II, 1776 : 

Judge Jones Adam Seabury 

D'l Kissam, Jr. Chas. NicoU 

Aug. Van Home Josp. Griswold 

Wm. Thorne John Chave 

David Brooks Dv'd Beatty 

Arch'd Hamilton Benj. Hewlett 

John Willett Chas. Hicks 

John Rapalje Isaac Smith 

Whitehead Cornell. 

Jedediah Huntington writes to Governor Trumbull, August 11 : 
" Judge Jones being taken up and ordered to Connecticut has ap- 
plied to me for letters to my friends, I am a stranger to his political 



384 



EARLY LONG ISLAND. 



taken to Connecticut. There they remained under 
parole until December 9th. At the same time Gen- 
eral Greene, in camp on Brooklyn Heights, had sent 
to the Commander-in-chief a " List of Tories," ' 
containing several names previously reported. The 
centring of the British fleets in and about New 
York Bay had occasioned an alarm which found ex- 
pression in these and similar acts against those who 
represented the best worth of the island. The crisis 
of battle drew near. 



character except that he has lately held a place under the crown of 
England. His character as a gentleman is unexceptionable." 

Washington writes to Trumbull the same day : "Judge Jones ex- 
pects to be permitted to stay at New Haven. Unless particular 
circumstances require it, these prisoners should be removed from 
seaport & post-towns." — Am. Archives^ series v., vol. i., p. 8q8. 



iHugh Wallace 
Alexander Wallace 
Dr. Arden 
Mr. Bethun * 
Nath'l Mills 
Jos. French 
Capt. Benj. Whitehead 
Richard Betts 
John Troup 
Van Brunt, at the Mill 



Rob't Ross Waddle 
Thos. Willett, Esq. 

Sheriff of Flushing 
Edward Willett 
David Colden 
Charles Willett 
Judge Willett 
Joseph Field 



Jas. Griswold at the Plains 

Justice Isaac Smith 

Wm. Thome, Great Neck 

Justice Kissam 

Benj. Hewlett 

Rich. Townsend 

Justice Clowes * 

Dr. Beatty 

Dr. Seabury 

Geo. Hewlett, Hempstead 

Stephen Hewlett 

J. Miller 

James Coggeshall 

Richard Hewlett, Rockaway 

Dr. Martin 

Chas. Hicks 

Whitehead Cornell 

justice John Hewlett 

East Woods, 
* Should be secured. 



XVI. 



THE BATTLE OF BROOKLYN. 



FOR some months efforts had been making for 
the fortification of the Harbour against the 
expected British fleets. As many rafts, gun- 
boats, and floating batteries as could be obtained 
were collected. A chevaiix de frise obstructed the 
main channel south of the Battery. A small body 
of Connecticut troops were on Governor's Island 
and at Paulus Hook. 

The fortifying of Brooklyn had been in progress 
since early spring. In March, Lord Sterling had 
ordered all the male inhabitants to work upon the 
intrenchments. Aline of earthworks on which were 
four forts was thrown up from the head of Gowanus 
Creek to the Wallabout,' a distance of one and a 
half miles, thus enclosing Brooklyn Heights. Fort 
Box,'' later called Fort Boerum, near Boerum's Hill, 
was on the margin of the creek. Fort Greene, three 
hundred rods to the left, was a star-shaped battery 

* 'T Waale Boght then extended inland to the corner of Flushing 
Avenue and Portland Street. 

- On Pacific Street, above Bond, named for Major Daniel Box of 
Greene's Brigade. 

2S ■ 385 



386 EARLY LONG LSLAND. 

carrying six guns. The oblong redoubt, built 
where is now the corner of De Kalb and Hudson 
Avenues, was a circular battery. On the hill, in 
Washington Park, was Fort Putnam.' Besides these 
were Fort Defiance at Red Hook, and Fort Sterling, 
largest and strongest of the defences, at the corner 
of Hicks and Pierrepont Streets, commanding the 
East River. In the present whirl of traffic at the 
corner of Court and Atlantic Streets, there rose the 
Ponkieberg, or Cobble Hill,' a symmetrically conical 
glacial mound, seventy feet in height, nicknamed 
the Corkscrew Fort from its spiral ascent. 

There were in all but thirty-five guns mostly 
eighteen pounders.' While the intrenchments were 
of the rudest and least enduring kind, they were 
helped by the broken ground of that sylvan region. 
A swamp extended around the village of Brooklyn, 
along the present lines of Grand and Flushing Ave- 
nues, from the Wallabout to Newtown Creek. More 
than three-fourths the present surface of the city 
was covered with a magnificent forest, a stately 
growth of pepperidge and oak, of liquidambar, and 
ash, of chestnut and tulip-trees. It extended from 
Fort Putnam down to the Flatbush and Jamaica 
roads, and beyond, broken by sunny glades of 

' Probably named for Colonel Riifus Putnam, the skilled engineer 
engaged on the defences of New York. Colonel Putnam became, in 
Washington's administration, the Surveyor-General of the United 
States, and the pioneer of Ohio, settling Marietta. 

^ The latter name was given by the Massachusetts troops from its 
resemblance to Cobble Hill, near Boston. 

^ For calibre and distribution of the guns, see Am. Archives, ser. 
v., vol. i., p. 541. 



"HASTENING TO A CRISIS." 387 

" English meadow," over the plains of Amersfoordt 
and well toward " The New Lots," where the wood- 
man's havoc had already begun. Approaching the 
earthworks, the trees were felled over many acres, 
and presented to the advance of the army an oppos- 
ing mass of fallen trunks, of intertangled boughs, and 
sharpened branches. 

The importance of the issue was fully recognized. 
On June 4th, John Hancock, President of the Con- 
tinental Congress, had written to the Governors and 
Assemblies of the various Colonies: " Our affairs are 
hastening fast to a crisis, and the approaching cam- 
paign will, in all probability, determine forever the 
fate of America." So it was, decisive, not as ending 
the war, but as establishing the resisting power of 
the Americans and the fatuity of the British 
generals. 

As nearer came this crisis which was to stain with 
brothers' blood the heights of Ihpetonga and the 
woodland slopes of Vlackebosch, the Convention 
endeavoured to prepare for battle. So desperate 
did the case seem that Jay had proposed that Long 
Island should be laid waste. New York burned, and 
the inhabitants fortify themselves in the Highlands. 
Thirteen thousand Provincial Militia were ordered to 
join the force which Washington brought from Bos- 
ton and a reserve corps of ten thousand was to be 
organised, but these numbers existed only on paper. 
On August loth, half the militia of Kings and 
Queens was ordered to march immediately and join 
the officer commanding the Continental troops on 
Nassau, to be continued in service until September 



388 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

1st. Tliat officer had been General Greene, whose 
presence at Brooklyn for some months had made him 
familiar with the topography of Kings County. His 
severe illness transferred the command to General 
Sullivan, and four days before the battle,* it was given 
to General Putnam. Putnam's entire ignorance of 
the ground, and of any military tactics, but " to fight 
whenever and wherever he saw an enemy," left the 
Americans practically with no commanding officer, 
and made of the Battle of Brooklyn not a general 
engagement, but a series of detached and desperate 
struggles blindly fought in the woods and swamps. 
The General's personal bravery has made of him a 
picturesque character, while he had still other traits 
which endeared him to the popular heart. The peo- 
ple looked upon him as their man, but his disregard 
of the most elementary principles of warfare cost 
them dear. The orders from Washington instructed 
him to " form lines of defence and to secure the 
woods by abatis, &c." General Sullivan had kept a 
nightly patrol on the various roads. This was now 
neglected, and Putnam never once left Brooklyn to 
examine the various lines of approach.^ 

Both English and American authorities disagree 
entirely as to the number of troops engaged in the 
Battle of Brooklyn. The official roll of Washing- 
ton's army was twenty thousand five hundred and 
thirty-seven, but of these three thousand eight hun- 

' See Sullivan's letter to Congress, dated ' ' ^Yhite Marsh, Oct. 25th. , 

1777." 
"Dnei's Life of Lord Sterling, p. i66. 
- See Dawson's Battles of the United States, vol. i., p. 143. 



NUMBER OF THE FORCE ENGAGED. 389 

dred men were ill, or absent on leave. The addition, 
in July, of three thousand one hundred and fifty 
men, was of a body inexperienced, undisciplined, and 
unequipped. A month later, he had but seventeen 
thousand two hundred and twenty-five, of whom 
three thousand six hundred and sixty-eight were un- 
fit for service, leaving but thirteen thousand five 
hundred and fifty-seven to protect the entire region 
from King's Bridge to the Narrows. Properly to 
have defended the forts alone would have needed 
eight thousand men, and as many more were 
required for the outside lines. On August 22d, 
there was a force probably of five thousand five hun- 
dred distributed along the intrenchments.* 

England was still hopeful for the immediate end- 
ing of the war. A single decisive blow she deemed 
sufflcient for inexperienced Provincial Militia and for 
a country only half-hearted in its wish for indepen- 
dence. New York, from its position at the mouth 
of the Hudson, commanding the water-way to 
Canada, was a most important post and, naturally, 
the base of operations. Staten Island was invested 
in June, Lord Howe's armament^ arrived in July, and 
General Clinton came with the fleet repulsed at 
Charleston. There was no thought of defeat ; New 
York won. General Carleton was to descend from 
Canada, and meeting Lord Howe, cut off New 

' Washington wrote to Congress that " the shifting and changing 
which the Regiments have undergone, lias prevented their making 
proper returns," and that he can make no definite report of the 
numbers in the army, or fit for service. 

* Six ships of the line, thirty frigates, with many smaller vessels and 
transports, 



390 EARL V LONG ISLAND. 

England from the other Colonies and thus end 
the war. 

The plan was admirable, but it involved too many 
varying factors to be worked to a successful conclu- 
sion, while no allowance was made for the personal 
equation. Neither the uncertainties of the weather, 
nor the need for a thorough knowledge of the 
ground, was properly estimated. From both these 
causes the victory was less than was confidently 
expected. Lord Howe delayed in reaching New 
York. General Howe was more than dilatory in 
following up the success at Brooklyn, and the army 
from Canada did not advance beyond Lake Cham- 
plain, So it was that, although the city of New 
York was won and held for seven years, the war was 
but at its beginning. 

Lord Howe and his brother came as Royal Com- 
missioners authorised to arrange a peace. His 
attempted negotiations with Washington are well 
known. On July 26th, Thomas Willet of Queens was 
arrested by the County Committee and sent to Con- 
gress for posting in the various towns the Declara- 
tion ' of the Howes which granted " a free and 
general pardon to all who in the tumult and disorder 
of the times may have deviated from just allegiance, 
and are willing by a speedy return to their duty to 
reap the benefits of the royal favour." 

Now began the stirring events of the week whose 
culminating action is recorded in history as the Bat- 
tle of Long Island, a misnomer for what contem- 
porary writing and tradition always call the Battle 
' See Appendix iii., p. 505. 



GENERAL HOWE'S PROCLAMATION. 39 1 

of Brooklyn. As well might Bunker Hill be spoken 
of as the Battle of Massachusetts. On August 22d, 
Howe's fleet approached the Narrows.' Under 
cover of the frigates, the Rose^ the Phcenix, and the 
GrayJiouiid, twenty thousand (probably) troops were 
landed at Gravesend Bay, on the site of Bath, at 
nearly the spot whence on another August day, one 
hundred and twelve years before, an English ofificer 
had marched to the easy conquest of a foreign 
province. 

During the four days which passed before the final 
encounter, the greatest alarm was felt by the people 
of Kings in anticipation of Hessian barbarity, while 
the actual depredations from the American camp 
were not less to be feared. Houses and lands were 
deserted ; sometimes the house would be hastily left 
with the very table spread for the noon-day meal. 
The sky was lurid with flames from the freshly 
stacked grain, the plains were whitened with the 
tents of the invaders, and the clash of arms and the 
beat of drums penetrated far into the forest depths 
whose only accustomed sounds had been the tink- 
ling cow-bell, or the shrill dinner-horn from some 
near bouwerie. 

From the broad-roofed stone house of Denys 
Denyse, then standing on the site of Fort Hamilton, 
General Howe issued on August 23d the Proclama- 
tion which was his ultimatum : 

" Whereas it is reported that many of the loyal 

' See Washington's letter to the President of Congress announcing 
the landing of the British. Am. Archives, ser. v., vol. i., p. 1130 
and to Governor Trumbull, ibid., p. 1143, 



392 EARL Y LONG LSLAND. 

inhabitants of this Island have been compelled by 
the leaders in rebellion to take up arms against his 
Majesty's government, notice is hereby given to all 
persons so forced into rebellion, that on delivering 
themselves up at the Headquarters of the Army, 
they will be recognised as faithful subjects having 
permission peaceably to return to their respective 
dwellings and to meet with full protection for per- 
sons and property. All who choose to take up 
arms for the restoration of order and Good Govern- 
ment within this Island, shall be disposed of in the 
best manner and have every encouragement that can 
be expected. 

" Given under my hand and seal, at Head 
Quarters, Long Island: August 23d, 1776. 

"William Howe." 

On the morning of the 23d, Colonel Hand, with a 
battalion of five hundred and fifty Pennsylvania 
Riflemen, attacked the Hessian camp at Flatbush. 
Their spirited assault was only repelled by the artil- 
lery of the enemy. On the 24th, the Americans 
made another attack and burned the houses of Jere- 
miah Vanderbilt, Everts Hegeman, and Leffert 
Lefferts, in which the German ofificers were quar- 
tered.' On the 25th, a few riflemen brought several 
guns to the edge of the woods and, opening fire on 
the village, were with difificulty driven back. The 

^ Washington wrote to Putnam on the 25th : " I perceived yester- 
day, a scattering, unmeaning and wasteful fire from our people at the 
enemy, a kind of fire which tended to disgrace our own men as 
soldiers and to render our defence contemptible in the eyes of the 
enemy." — Am, Archives, ser. v., vol. i., p. 1149. 



THE LINES OF MARCH. 393 

Hessians were much disconcerted by these unex- 
pected and persistent attacks. The number of the 
American army was greatly exaggerated by the 
invaders, while the vague mystery of the dark forest, 
its swamps and thickets, added a new and appalling 
element of danger. On the 26th, was still another 
of these preliminary skirmishes so bravely conducted 
that Lord Cornwallis ordered the withdrawal of his 
men. 

The 27th of August drew near, General Putnam 
had an army of possibly seven thousand men, half 
of them outside the defences of Brooklyn.' His 
left wing rested on the Wallabout ; his right was 
protected by the salt marshes of the Gowanus glow- 
ing in the midsummer beauty of the rose mallows. 
A deeper crimson was soon to dye the already 
bronzed grasses. 

The two armies were separated by that nobly 
wooded line of irregular hills, the western end of 
the backbone of Nassau. Through the forest and 
over the broken ground, fields ploughed for the winter 
wheat, thickets of alder, close-set orchards bending 
with ripening fruit, and tracts of swamp and swale 
in the gorgeous bloom of the August Compositae, 

' An army composed almost entirely of militia. Some of the diffi- 
culties in its management are shown in the letter of Washington to 
the New York Convention, August 30th, explaining why he gave up 
further attempt to hold the Island : " It is the most intricate thing 
in the world, Sir, to know how to conduct one's self in respect to the 
Militia ; if you do not begin many days before they are wanted to 
raise them, you cannot have them in time ; if you do, they get tired 
and return, besides being under very little order or government 
while in service." — Am. Archives, ser. v., vol. i., p. 1230. 



394 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

there were but three routes practicable for the 
march of an army encumbered with artillery and 
heavy baggage. The Shore-road from The Narrows 
followed closely the curvature of the Bay, the Flat- 
bush Road led through forest and farm, while 
another, farther east, ran through Flatlands toward 
the clearing beginning to be called The New Lots. 
Along the ridge ran the King's Highway to Jamaica 
on which were occasional posts. 

At nine o'clock on the evening of the 26th the 
British began to move. The army advanced in well 
considered order. The Centre on the Flatbush Road 
was of Hessians under the bluff old General de Heis- 
ter ; the Left Wing was of English Regulars under 
Major-General Grant, an of^cer who had served well 
in the last French and Indian war ; while the Right 
moved to the East on the road toward New Lots. 
The plan was that, while distracting the attention of 
the Americans by the feints of the Centre and Left, 
the Right, marching through Flatlands, should seize 
the crossing of the road with the Jamaica Turnpike, 
and thus reach the rear of the Americans. 

The Right was the largest and most experienced 
division of the army. The van of light infantry was 
under General Clinton. Lord Percy led the cavalry 
and artillery, and Cornwallis followed with the heavy 
infantry and baggage. He was accompanied by the 
Commander-in-chief, General Howe. Slowly and 
cautiously the army marched through the dewy 
August night, past the deserted bouweries and farm- 
houses of Flatlands, half concealed in rising mist 
wreaths, through the forest, sawing down the trees 



THE UNGUARDED PASS. 395 

which obstructed their way, that no sound of axe 
should give the alarm, arresting every belated way- 
farer who might betray their advance. 

Reaching the salt-water creek which pushes up 
from Gowanus Bay, at the Schoonmaacher's Bridge, 
just south of the site of East New York, they were 
surprised to find the route open to the Jamaica 
Road. At two in the morning, Cornwallis had 
reached the Half-way House, the inn of William 
Howard.' Forcing the innkeeper into their service, 
they were guided to a narrow pass through the hills, 
the " Rockaway Path," a bridle road crossing the 
present grounds of the Evergreen Cemetery, and 
leading into the Bushwick Lane. To their astonish- 
ment they found the pass unguarded, and its posses- 
sion virtually decided the day. Colonel Miles, who 
was stationed in the region, was in command of a 
body of men worn with five days' continuous watch- 
ing. This night they slept, but although completely 
surprised ^ they fought bravely in the forlorn hope 
to retrieve their negligence. It was too late ; the 
carelessness was fatal to the American success, and 
the detachment itself was completely routed. 

Meanwhile, Putnam had burst into Lord Sterling's 
tent in the earliest dawn and roused him with the 
news of the British approach on the road from The 
Narrows. Quickly the Americans mustered in the 
woods which covered the hills and dales of Green- 
wood, stretching down on either side to Flatlands 

' At the corner of Broadway and the Jamaica Turnpike. 
* The advancing party was led by William Granville Evelyn, the 
grandson of John Evelyn of Wotton. 



396 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

and to Gowanus. Their number and position were 
thus concealed, a circumstance greatly in their 
favour. Here was to be the actual battle. 

Although, on August 27th, " 17,000 of the best 
troops of Europe met 5,500 undisciplined men in 
the first pitched battle of the Revolution," ' the real 
conflict was between Sterling and Grant. Grant 
had said in Parliament that with five thousand 
British troops he could march from one end to the 
other of the American Continent. Sterling repeated 
this boast to his men, and added : " We are not so 
many, but I think we are enough to prevent his 
advancing farther over the Continent than this mill- 
pond." 

There was hard fighting on the ground now be- 
tween Washington Avenue and Third Street, and 
on the low land near Greene Avenue and Fourth 
Street. The American lines were broken only when 
attacked in front, rear, and flank. Lord Percy's 
Corps came up and the whole body descended to 
the flat between the hills and the American camp. 
The Maartense Lane wound among the hills of 
Greenwood and now marks the southern boundary 
of the Cemetery. Where it crossed the Gowanus 
Road stood the Red Lion Inn, another centre of 
battle. The road was held by the New York and 
Pennsylvania Militia. Charged by Lord Percy, they 
fell back until reinforced by General Parsons, who 
stationed himself on the Blockjc's Berg" and held his 

' Mem. Long Island Historical Society^ vol. ii. The Battle of Long 
Island ; T. W. Field. 

^ Near Sylvan Lake, Greenwood. 



A NEW THERMOPYLM. 397 

ground until Lord Sterling came to his aid. They 
fought gallantly, not knowing the day was already 
lost. The action was scattered and at times inde- 
cisive ; the broken ground and intervening forests 
occasioned many distinct side combats. 

For some hours the Americans were driven back 
and forth between the English and the Hessians. 
The Cortelyou Mansion ' served as a redoubt for 
CornwalHs. Lord Sterling bore upon it, three times 
driven back by the murderous shot, three times 
rallying for assault. In his Corps was Colonel 
Smallwood's Regiment, the chivalry of Maryland, 
young men from the old Catholic families of the 
Province. " We can but send you our best," wrote 
the Maryland Assembly to Washington, Retreat 
soon became inevitable. Then, at the front, in con- 
scious sacrifice, the brave boys held the enemy. 
Ten minutes were gained. The main division es- 
caped ' over the flooded marsh, and the muddy, 
tide-swelled stream of the Gowanus. But of those 
who guarded their retreat, two hundred and fifty- 
six fell. It was a new Thermopylae. Washington 
from his post on Cobble Hill, watching them fall, 
exclaimed, wringing his hands: "My God! what 
brave men must I lose ! " On the farm of Adrian 
Van Brunt, a little island, scarcely an acre in extent," 
rose above the swamp. Here they were buried in 
their uniform of scarlet and buff, a spot held sacred 

' Near Fifth Avenue and Tenth Street. It was built in 1699. 

2 The Delaware regiments, and half the Marylanders, with the 
loss of but seven men drowned. Of the protecting party only nine 
escaped. 

^ Between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, near Third Street. 



398 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

until the cutting and grading of city streets merged 
it in the general obliteration of all venerable land- 
marks. 

Before noon the contest was nearly over. A few 
squads by desperate fighting made their way back 
to the intrenchments ; others hid in the woods and 
swamps, but a thousand men lay dead on the field.' 
On the beautiful slope, the Battle Pass in Prospect 
Park, a sunnv glade shut in bv silver firs, its smooth 
turf flecked with the fluttering shadows of weeping 
birch, there, half hidden beneath clumps of box, a 
great boulder bears a bronze tablet commemorating 
this hour. It reads : 

" Like of Defense 
Aug. 27, 1776 
Battle of Loxg Isi_\n. 
175 Feet South s- 



SiTE OF Valley Groa^k House 
i^o Feet North." 



The dark forest, the sodden swamp, the well- 
ordered streets, the delightsome Park, its drives and 
walks — such are the sharp antitheses of a centur\\ 

^ An officer in General Frsuer's Battalion wrote : " The Hessians 
and our brave Highlanders gave no quarter. It was a verj- fine sight 
to see x»-ith what alacrity- they dispatched the rebels with their bayo- 
nets after we had surrounded them so they could not resist. We 
took care to tell the He<sians the rebels had resolved to give no 
quarter to them, particularly, which made them fight desperately, 
and put to death all that came into their hands." 

Another officer of high rank \\-TX)te : " The Americans fought 
bravely and could not be broken till greatly outnumbered and taken 
flank, front and rear. We were greatly shocked by the massacres 
made by the Hessians and Highlanders alter the \-ictory was de- 
cided. *■ 



LOSSES OF THE BATTLE. 399 

Bv two o'clock fiijhtin^ was over. Manv were 
taken prisoners, or died miserably in the attempt 
to escape through the swamps of Gowanus up 
which the treacherous tide was hastening. Lord 
Sterling was captured, but, refusing to surrender to 
Cornwallis, sought De Heister. and gave his sword 
to him. No exact returns of the American loss were 
ever made. General Howe's roll of prisoners was 
one thousand and ninety-seven.' His estimate of 
the entire loss at thirty-three hundred is certainly an 
exaggeration. In killed, missing, and prisoners it 

' It was but three weeks later that the Wkithy\ first of the prison 
ships, was moored in the Waliabont. Disease was rife, and she was 
( a floating pest-house. The next May two other ships came, into which 

( the surviving prisoners were transferred. Within a year both of these 

ships were burned. In April, 177S, the old yersey was brought there, 
while the Hcpe and the FaJnwuth were anchored near as hospital 
ships, and there they remained until the Evacuation of New York. 
The Xew York Journals of the time give the number dying on these 
ships at 11,500, a statement never contradicted by any English sta- 
tistics. 

A letter was written from 

** Boston Apr. 13th 1783 
'* To all Printers of Public News-Papers. 

" Tell the whole world and let it be printed in every news-paper 
throughout America, Europe, Asia and Africa to the everlasting dis- 
grace and infamy of the British King's Commander at New York, 

'• That during the late war, eleven thousand six hundred and 
SETENTT-ForR American Prisoners have suffered death by their in- 
human, cruel, savage and barbarous usage on board the filthy and 
malignant British Prison Shif called the Jersey, lying at New York. 
Britons ! tremble least the vengeance of Heaven fall on your Isle, 
for the blood of these unforronate victims. An American." 

— Rtmemhrancer, vol. xvi., p. 112. 



400 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

possibly did not exceed two thousand. The English 
loss was about four hundred," 

The American troops struggled back to their lines 
and found unexpected repose. The story of the 
evening is well told by the spirited historian of 
New York during the Revolution'^ *' The Brit- 
ish victory was complete. The rebel army took 
refuge within the lines. Generals Clinton and 
Vaughn and Lord Cornwallis pressed the Com- 
mander-in-chief hard for leave to enter the lines, 
and the common men were with difBculty restrained. 
He said, ' Enough has been done for one day,' and 
called off the troops and camped within six hundred 
paces of the American redoubt." 

' See Howe's Official Report, Af/i. ArcJiives, ser. v., vol. i., pp. 

1255-9- 

In ih.Q Jourtial of Ike American War hy R. I. Lamb, Sergeant of 

the Royal Welsh Fusileers, he tabulates the loss as follows : 

American : English ; 

3 generals, i colonel, 

10 field officers, 6 captains, 

11 ensigns, 8 lieutenants, 
I adjutant, 14 sergeants, 

3 surgeons, 3 dnimmers, 

1008 rank and file, 231 rank and file, 

Total, 1036. Total, 263. 

''Jones, vol. i., p. no. For letters on the Battle of Brooklyn, 
see Am. Archives, ser. v., vol. i., pp. 1193-S ; 1211-4 ; 1243-6. 
One of these writers says, August 20th : " The great and impending 
day, big with the fate of America and Liberty, seems to draw 
near." Another writes : "The enemy has gained a little ground, 
but has bought it almost as dearly as at Bunker Hill. Our army be- 
haved most nobly. They, as it were, surrounded our people, and 
we were obliged to force our way through them. , . . Colonel 
Smallwood's battalion has gained immortal honour. The officers 
gave T^ord Sterling tlie character of as brave a man as ever lived." 



SUFFERINGS OF THE AMERICAN TROOPS. 40I 

It has been well said that " every victorious field 
proved a Capua to General Howe " (Field), but 
therein was more than the influence of an ease-lov- 
ing nature. His absolute timidity before the slight 
defences of the American army may have been in a 
measure due to the fatal snare that lines as weak 
had proved at Ticonderoga to his brother, the more 
estimable Lord George Howe. Among their own 
ofificers there was unstinted blame of the lethargy 
and indifference of both General Howe and the Ad- 
miral, Lord Richard, and yet the former received 
the Order of the Bath for his victory at Brooklyn.' 

During the d^y, Washington had watched its 
fortunes from the Ponkieberg. When its result 
was certain, he hastened to New York to collect 
such additional forces as might hold the American 
lines, and returned at evening to prepare the works 
for assault. A heavy rain fell through the night of 
the 27th. Few of his soldiers were sheltered by 
tents or protected by blankets. They suffered also 
from extreme hunger. Most of them had rushed 
a-field in the morning with no breakfast, while now 
their bread was water-soaked, and the rain extin- 
guished the fires by which they attempted to fry 
their morsels of salt pork. 

At daybreak the reinforcements came, raising the 

' They were not without their ardent defenders. A letter written 
from New York to the London Chronicle excuses the delay in follow- 
ing up a victory which might speedily have ended the war, by say- 
ing : " The impenetrable secresy observed by the two noble brothers 
has wholly disconcerted and confounded the rebels to a degree 
which will ensure a glorious triumph to his Majesty over this hellish 

American sedition, its ringleaders, and abettors." 

26 



402 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

number of the army to ten thousand (Fiske). Thir- 
teen hundred men were placed on the line between 
the Wallabout and Fort Putnam. During the 28th 
there was some firing on Fort Putnam. Prepara- 
tions were leisurely begun for a formal siege of the 
American intrenchments. On the muddy ground 
behind the breastworks the soldiers lay all day on 
their firearms to protect them from the still falling 
rain. Had Lord Howe passed up the East River, 
as was expected, nothing could have saved the 
American army from annihilation. The morning of 
the 29th came, dark and rainy, but before noon the 
heavy fog lifted, the English had finished their re- 
doubt, and were at length ready for action. Secure 
in the certainty of success, they did not hasten the 
assault, but during the day there was some desul- 
tory firing. Demoralised as his troops were, by 
exposure, fatigue, and despondency, Washington 
had still determined to attempt another battle on 
Long Island. But meanwhile General Mififiin, Colo- 
nel Reed, and Colonel Grayson, examining Red 
Hook, whence they could take in the whole situa- 
tion, urged him strongly to withdraw the army be- 
fore the English fleet passed up the river. 

Three most surprising facts are here to be no- 
ticed : the delay Washington had already made in 
removing his forces, happily neutralised by the neg- 
lect of Admiral Howe to use his fleet, and the fail- 
ure of General Howe to at once carry the American 
works by easy assault." The remissness of the Eng- 

' Their course is severely concleraned by all English historians. 
Jmks's account of the campaign is one long ilenunciation of the 



A COUNCIL OF WAR. 403 

lish commanders thus made for the safety of the 
American army.' Late on the afternoon of August 
29th, a Council of War was held in the old Cornell 
House ^ on Brooklyn Heights. There were present, 
besides Washington, Major-Generals Putnam and 
Spencer; Brigadier-Generals Mifflin, McDougal, Fel- 
lows, and Wadsworth, with John Morin Scott. They 
have left on record the obvious and cogent reasons 
for abandoning the Brooklyn lines, and for an im- 
mediate retreat to New York. Although Scott, 
with characteristic fervour, protested against yield- 
ing a single inch of ground, Washington was finally 
persuaded to give up an attempt at longer resist- 
ance. Orders were at once sent to New York to 
collect for the removal of the army every possible 
craft. A motley fleet it was, row-boats and flat- 
boats, whale-boats and sail-boats, pinks and snows, 
while Colonel Glover's Marblehead regiment fur- 
nished seven hundred stout-armed oarsmen. Wash- 
ington allowed it to be supposed that he intended 
taking part of the army up the East River, to land 
at Hallet's Point, and thus marching southeast, to 
gain the rear of the British army. The design was 

Howes: "Had Admiral Howe passed up the East River to Hell- 
Gate not a rebel would have escaped from Long Island. The whole 
grand rebel army with Washington at their head would have been 
prisoners, rebellion at an end, the heroes immortalised, and the 27th 
August, 1776, recorded in the Annals of Britain as a day not less 
glorious than those of Ramillies and Blenheim. . . . But this 
was not done, and why it was not, let the brothers Howe tell." — 
I/ist. N't'iv York during the Revolution, vol. i., ]i. 113. 

' Am. Archives, series v., vol. i., p. 1246. 

^ Later the Pierrepont residence on Montague Street, known as 
" The Four Chimneys." 



404 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

kept so secret that, until the last moment, the mar- 
shalled soldiers supposed themselves detailed for 
this service. 

General McDougal managed the embarkation 
under the supervision of Washington, who had not 
slept for forty-eight hours. At eight in the evening 
the first detachment marched to the ferry. Silently 
through the night the work went on ; the cannon, 
arms, ammunition, the horses, and the entire army 
were safely transferred, Alexander Hamilton, who 
at nineteen here served as captain of artillery, bring- 
ing up the rear. It was only as the sun rose that 
the protecting fog lifted from the river and from 
over the abandoned trenches. The retreat was not 
suspected by the English until seven o'clock. Even 
then there was a delay by General Robertson, who 
did not enter the deserted camp until half-past eight, 
just as the last boats were pushing ofif from the 
Brooklyn shore. 

A small number of American troops had been sta- 
tioned on Governor's Island, and were now quite at 
the mercy of Lord Howe. The story of their escape 
is quaintly told in the simple narrative of Jabez 
Flint, one of the " New Levies" of Tolland County, 
Connecticut, who after the siege of Boston had ac- 
companied Washington to New York : " The fore- 
part of the Campaign, our Regiment was stationed 
on Governor's Island and remained there until after 
the retreat of our Army from Brooklyn. Our situa- 
tion was then most perilous : the enemy's fleet on 
the west and their batteries on Long Island, which 
began playing on us immediately with great ixxry. 



GEiVERAL IVOODHULL. 405 

However, during the day there was a considerable 
number of boats collected which brought off the 
greatest part of the men by daylight amidst a tre- 
mendous shower of cannon balls from the enemy's 
batteries. Gen. Washington, with much anxiety, 
was at the time standing on the Battery, viewing 
our condition. We generally all arrived safely in 
the City. Some veiy few deaths are said to have 
happened. The rest of the forces lay concealed 
until dark when they were brought ofT safely." 

The capture and death of General Woodhull was 
a deplorable event of the week. No loss was more 
mourned than his. By birth and marriage he was 
of the oldest families of Brookhaven. He had 
served as major under Abercrombie at Ticonderoga 
and Crown Point, with Bradstreet at Frontenac, 
and as colonel with Amherst at Montreal. In the 
prime of life, with great personal bravery and a 
military aptitude enriched by experience, he was 
one of the most esteemed of the American officers. 
In August, 1775, he was made president of the Pro- 
vincial Congress. He held the office when the Con- 
gress passed into the Convention of the State, and 
as the colonial government had been overthrown, 
he was thus, de facto. Governor of New York. 

As the British fleet lay ofT The Narrows, the Con- 
vention, foreseeing their landing on Long Island, 
resolved on the policy which has been successful 
from the time of Darius's invasion of Scythia. But 
their action was delayed, and it was not until the 
25th that orders were given for the cattle in Queens 
County to be driven east of Hempstead Plains, and 



406 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

that all hay, grain, and other stores should be re- 
moved or burned. General WoodhuU was directed 
to take the five hundred Suffolk County Militia to 
Queens, and to call upon the Queens County troops 
to aid him in the execution of the orders. Of the 
entire body, but two hundred met him at Jamaica, 
and this inadequate force soon was reduced a half 
by desertion. He succeeded in removing the cattle 
from Newtown, Jamaica, and Hempstead, but could 
accomplish nothing more. His messages to the 
Convention for reinforcements, or for permission to 
join the troops at Brooklyn, were delayed and un- 
answered. Thus was lost to the army his skilled 
military service and a knowledge of the ground 
which would have averted the worst disasters of the 
day. He remained at Jamaica on the 27th, within 
sound of the booming cannon, but too obedient a 
soldier to move without orders. As his force melted 
away on the 28th, scattered by rumours of defeat, 
he awaited with stoic composure the fate he knew 
to be inevitable. At about five o'clock, at an inn 
two miles east of Jamaica, he was taken prisoner by 
a party of dragoons. Surrendering his sword, he 
was ordered by his captors to say, " God save the 
King ! " " God save us all ! " was his fervent ejacula- 
tion. The angry major in command ' fiercely at- 
tacked him, and he would have been killed but for 
the intervention of the other oflficers. On the 29th 
he was taken to New Utrecht. His inflamed 
wounds were dressed by the English surgeon, in the 
little Dutch church which was for another day his 

' Oliver de Lancey. 



KEMBLE ' S JO URN A L. 407 

prison. With others he was then removed to the 
Pacific, and thence to the Mentor, a yet more foul 
cattle-transport. Enduring its horrors for a week, 
he was finally brought to the old stone mansion 
which Nicasius de Sille had built in 1657/ now used 
as a hospital. 

The amputation of his arm was made, but too 
late to save his life. His wife, Ruth, daughter of 
Nicoll Floyd, reached him but shortly before his 
death, to return her sad way, bearing his body to 
rest among the ancestral graves of his homestead at 
Mastic. A characteristic note was struck when, in 
General Woodhull's summons to his wife, he bade 
her bring all the money and provisions she could 
collect. She came with a wagon filled with bread, 
meal, hams, poultry, and all seasonable farm pro- 
duce, to be distributed among his fellow-sufferers. 

An interesting contemporary account of the Battle 
of Brooklyn is in the Journal of Lieutenant-Colonel 
Stephen Kemble, the son of Gertrude Bayard, and 
Adjutant under General Howe.'' 

" Thurs. Aug. 22. 

" At Daybreak Reserve embarked in flatboats 
towed to Long Island & landed about 9 AM. at 
New Utrecht, without the smallest opposition. 
The ships with the rest of the troops came all 
ashore by twelve, 14,700 men. 

" The Advance under Lt.-Gen. Clinton and Earl 
Cornwallis, — the reserve composed of Grenadiers of 

• Taken do\vn in 1850. 

* See Collections of the New York Historical Society, 1885. 



4o8 EARLY LONG LSLAND. 

the 42nd & 33rd Regts with part of the Light In- 
fantr)', proceeded immediately to Flatbush with 
1.500 Hessians under Col. Donop, where they had 
some skirmishing with the Rebels from the Heights 
leading to Brookland Ferry & a few men were 
killed &: wounded, but of no consequence. 

"Part of the Light Infantiy & the 71st took post 
at Flatlands Church. The rest of our army ex- 
tending from Gravesend to New Utrecht remained 
in that position until the 26th, at night when they 
were ordered to march, Gen. de Heister having 
joined the day before and taken post at Flatbush, 
keeping Donop's corps with him. We were ordered 
to March, the Right Light Infantry in front. Grena- 
diers 33rd & 42nd, First Brigade, 71st, Third Bri- 
gade, Fifth & Second by Flatlands Church into the 
Jamaica Road at the Halfway House where we 
arrived at Sunrise & pursued our Route after a 
Short halt, to Brookland. About a mile before we 
came to Bedford saw the Rebels on our Left. The 
Light Lifantry ordered to attack them which they 
did with success and drove them every way ; the 
Grenadiers continued the Road to Brookland with 
the general at their head to cut off the Enemy's 
Retreat from Brookland Heights which was happily 
executed. Lieut.-Gen. de Heister attacked from 
Flatbush at the same time & Major-Gen. Grant with 
the Fourth & Sixth Brigade from the Heights of 
the Narrows by which measure the Rebels were cut 
off from all Retreat and cooped up in the woods to 
the Right of the Road from Brookland to Flat- 
lands. Major-Gen. Grant had attacked early in the 



KE-MBLE'S JOURNAL. 



409 



morninc;, but the Enemy under IJrigadier-Gencral 
Lord Sterling & Major-Gen. Sullivan being strongly 
posted in the woods could not proceed far. The 
action between them and part of the Main body 
continued until late in the afternoon. The Rebels 
lost upward of 3000 men, 3 General Officers. — 
Major-Gen. Sullivan, Brigadier-Gen, Lord Sterling 
and Brigadier-Gen. Woodhull, 3 colonels, 4 lieut.- 
colonels, 3 majors, 18 captains, 15 subalterns, and 
upward of 1 100 men taken Prisoners, most of them 
Riflemen of whom they lost 1500. 

" Returns of the Killed, Wounded and Missing of 
the British troops on Long Island August 27th : 





Lt. Col. 


Capt. 


Sub. 


Sgt. 


Drum. 


Rank & File. 


Killed 

Wounded. . . . 
Missing 


I 

I 


3 
3 


8 

I 


3 
II 

I 


3 


53 

231 

29 


Total 


2 


6 


10 


15 


3 


+ 313 = 349 



" Wed. Aug. 28 & 29. 

" Employed in Erecting Batteries to attack their 
works on Brookland Heights. 

" Fri. Aug. 30. 

" In AM. to our great astonishment found they had 
evacuated all their works on Brookland & Red Hook 
without a shot being fired at them, & to the best of 
our observation found a body of 300 or 400 remain- 
ing on Governor's Island who might have been taken 
by flat Boat, but for what reason was not attempted. 
Neither could our shipping get up for want of wind, 



4IO EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

and the whole escaped the following Night to New 
York. 

" Saturday Aug. 31. 
" Marched to Newtown with the Grenadiers, Light 
Infantry, First, Second, Third, Fifth & Sixth Brigades 
& 71st Regt. who occupied Flushing & Jamaica." 

There were many narratives of the Battle written at 
the time, besides journals and letters, all more or less 
correct,all more or less coloured by the strong feelings 
of the writers on either side. One which had a brief 
popularity in England and in the British army here was 
an anonymous pamphlet, " Printed for J. Rivington, 
in the year of the Rebellion, 1776, The Battle OF 
Brooklyn. A FARCE in TWO ACTS as it was 
performed on Long Island on Tuesday the 27th 
day of August, 1776, by the REPRESENTATIVES of 
the Tyrants of America Assembled in Phila- 
delphia." It is a short pasquinade, equally devoid 
of decency and of wit. 




XVIL 

FROGRESS OF THE WAR. 

THZ Battle c^ Brooklyn was over^ the most 
s^nal delestt wiach ever befell the AaiencaB 
anas. It o^iered in the gloomiest period oi 
the war, dajdaiess dispelled only when, a. year later, 
the September son ^loce over the Seid of Still- 
water. Cliarles Fox spoke in Pariiam ent of the 
"" tenSile news from Losg I^and " Socii it was 
for f^ firieads of the Amefkaa caoise, while the 
SM CCFSS gamed was of little adYant^e to the victors. 
General Howe's adsmana^ment off die canqa^n 
excited the sfro^est feelii^ in ^e Itriti^ arm|r, 
which had hoped for a moce decisive vktory and a 
^peedjrendiiigof thewar,aswdQasamoi^the Loy- 
aEsts^ who were assioQ^y loahii^ for peaces When, 
in Apt^ 1779^ --- I-Izu^e af Coounons coosidefed 
his character, ^ as 1 :~ : ^entieman,"* no 

dadows were c t : ■ : -e cast by his conduct 

on Long X^aiuL ? : r r 'van Scfeiafk, of Kinder- 
hoo^ the iasn i Z ~ ensoa and of Jay, a 



4^ 



412 EARLY LONG LSLAND. 

Loyalist, then living in London, writes of his course 
in unstinted condemnation : " If decision was the 
great object, Long Island was the theatre for it ; the 
situation of the country was in your favour. The 
American army was at that time in its infancy ; there 
was but little discipline amongst them, they were ill- 
appointed, and ill-provided with necessities ; in mili- 
tary stores they were almost destitute of resources. 
Their number although much exaggerated,was indeed 
considerable, but chiefly of Militia. The Associated 
States had not been organised ; their government 
had not then taken root. If ever there was a time, 
then it was to put an end to the war. Yet here, in 
a time so auspicious, what was your conduct ? With 
an army of 25,000 men in the full powers of health, 
discipline and valour, ably appointed, amply pro- 
vided, after routing with great slaughter your enemy 
from their most advanced posts, whence they had 
fled in utmost confusion, where they had lost two of 
their generals and a number of their best ofificers, 
and panic-struck retired into their works, when your 
troops showed as you say, ' a determined courage 
never before exceeded,' when their pursuit was close 
to the enemy's retreat, when you declared * it was 
apparent that it would have been carried,' what was 
your conduct at this critical hour? . . . If you 
were not determined to protract the war, if you had 
no eye to lucrative motives, your conduct betrayed 
the grossest ignorance." ' 

Long Island was still felt to be ground of the 
greatest importance. Governor Trumbull — " Brother 
* Life of Peter Van Schaack^ pp. 161-84. 



IN POSSESSION OF THE ENGLISH. 413 

Jonathan " — now, as before the battle, was in con- 
stant negotiation with Washington and with the 
Connecticut Association in reference to her affairs. 
September 9th, he wrote to the Massachusetts 
Assembly of the " vast importance of preventing 
the Ministerial army taking the benefit of the stock 
on Long Island and availing themselves of that post. 
To prevent the total reduction of the inhabitants is, 
I apprehend, a matter of more consequence to the 
Common Cause than we can easily imagine. To dis- 
lodge the enemy from Long Island and to destroy 
the ships in the Sound might at one blow in the 
greatest measure relieve our bleeding country from 
its impending danger." ' 

Long Island was now in possession of the 
English. After the Battle of Brooklyn, each town 
called Town Meetings which made a formal surren- 
der of the Island to Lord Howe. Yet there was by 
no means the harmony assumed in this quotation 
from Jones: "The Committees on Long Island 
now surrendered, returned to their allegiance, re- 
newed their oaths, and once more became his Ma- 
jesty's loyal subjects. Instantly all was peace and 
quietness ; the loyal were eased of their fears and 
delivered from the tyranny of their persecutors, the 
disloyal repented of their crimes and returned to 
their duty and Long Island became an Asylum for 
the Loyalists to which they fled from all parts of 
the Continent for safety and protection, to avoid 
oppression at least if not murder." '^ 

' Am. Archives, series v., vol., ii., p 256. 

^ Hist. Ne7v York during the Revolution, vol. ii., p.' 115. 



414 EARLY LONG ISLAXD. 

The truth is, that the divided allegiance of Long 
Island subjected the people of either side to equal 
harassment, and the irascible Judge contradicts the 
above, as he elsewhere writes of affairs with the 
acerbity with which he regarded the entire manage- 
ment of the war. General Howe, he tells us. 
spent three weeks on Long Island : " After the 
decisive Rattle of Brookland,' his troops continually 
plundered the inhabitants of those parts where they 
w'ere encamped. He placed his army in different 
positions in King's County and the westernmost 
part of Queen's.* This done, a little plunder was 
connived at, or rather encouraged than discouraged 
by some of the principal ofHcers of the Army. The 
Hessians bore the blame at first, but the British were 
equally alert." Jones further denounces the policy 
of the King and his Cabinet : " Rebels were to be 
converted ; Loyalists to be frowned upon. Procla- 
mations were to end an inveterate rebellion ; an 
opposition, the most unprincipalled opposition in 
England was to be pleased ; the powers and patron- 
age of the Commissioners in charge to be con- 
tinued, that Ou.irtermasters, Commissaries, &c. might 
enrich themselves by amassing large fortunes out of 
the public." ^ 

' He left Newtown, September 14th. 

* De Heister was on Brooklyn Heights ; :^ brigade at Bedford and 
in the neighbourhood of Newtown, Bushwick, Flushing, and Hellgate. 
General Robertson had his headquarters there with ten thousand 
men encamped in the fields. 

* After the Battle of Brooklyn the farmers of Kings County were 
forced to famish the horses and wagons needed by the army. For 
these no payment was ever made — " through the man^vuvres of the 
Quartermaster," sa)-s Jones. 



SECESSION OF CO IV A'ECA'. 415 

The English soldiers were indiscriminate in their 
raids, plundering alike both friend and foe. Even 
when the forces were withdrawn except from scat- 
tered outposts on the Sound, a guerilla warfare pre- 
vailed for more than seven years. There was no 
peace here until long after the exile of many of the 
best people and the final adjustment of a definitive 
treaty between Great Britain and the United States. 
But there were left wounds too deep to heal quickly, 
and even now, after the lapse of more than a century, 
some party watchword will still crimson an old scar. 

During the years of actual conflict, the state of 
Long Island could not easily have been worse. Not 
only was county arrayed against county, and the 
townships one against another, but a town was for- 
mally divided within itself, and in many a homestead 
rich in the cumulative associations of sixscore }'ears, 
brothers staked, on opposite sides, their lives and all 
that was dearer. Such a division was made even in 
Hempstead, most loyal of the lo}'al townships. The 
North Side was open to influences from Connecticut, 
and so it was that a year before this, decisive action 
had been taken : 

" At a Meeting of us the Inhabitants of Great 
Neck and Cow Neck and all such as lately belonged 
to the Company of Captain Stephen Thorne in 
Queen's Co. being duly warned on Saturday the 23rd 
Sept., 1775, and taking into serious consideration our 
distressed and calamitous situation, and being fully 
convinced of our total inability to pursue proper 
measures for our common safety, while we in all 
cases are considered a part of the town of Hemp- 



4l6 £AXL y LO.VG /SLA.VD. 

stead, and being conscious that self-presenation. the 
immutable law of Nature, is indispensable, do 
therefore 

^' R^so/\v ^rsf, that During the present conflict, or 
so long as their conduct is inimical to freedom, we 
will be no further considered as a part of the town- 
ship than is consistent with peace, liberty and safety, 
therefore, in all matters relative to the Conces- 
sional Plan, we shall consider ourselves as an entire 
separate, independent beat, or district. 
'* R^s. s^-onJ/r, that 

Mr. Daniel Kissam 
•• Henn.- Stocker 

\Vm. Thome 
** Benj. Sands 
•• Wm. Com well 
•• John Com well 
" John Mitchell. Sen. 
" John Burtess 

* Samuel Sands 

• Martin Schenck 

** Dan 1 Whitehead Kissam 
" Peter Onderdonk 
'• Adrian Onderdonk 
'• Thos, Dodge 
be a committee for this beat, or district 

"John Farmer, 

" Clerk of the Meeting. 

" October 4ih. 1775." 

This document sent to the Provincial Congress 
elicited high approval and was ordered to be en- 
grossed on their books.* 

' yimmaJ )fi/ Xrsp Vdiri I*mimti*i Cn^n^rfss, vol. i.. p. 175. 



"A XESr OF NOXIOUS VERMIN." 417 

The Congress exercised an inquisitorial guard over 
Hempstead, a watch intensified by the virulent zeal 
of many of its agents. In March, 1776, Daniel 
Whitehead Kissam being examined before that body, 
says that " On Saturday last, at the house of RicJi- 
ard Smith in Hcrricks, he met Captain jfacob Mott 
and that the said Mott infoniied him he had been 
arrested by order of Col. Sears and sworn : that 
the examinant saw a copy of the oath administered 
to the said Jacob Mott and others, and that he asked 
the said Mott why he did not produce his clearance 
from the Congress, and the said Mott had said that 
he had offered it to Mr. Sears and he would not 
look at it. . . . That Mr. Sears had with him a 
number of the armed soldiers and that the soldiers 
brought up the people to be sworn. That the people 
of Cozv Neck and 6^r^"rf/ -Wt*/^- are much dissatisfied at 
this proceeding and think there is no safety ; that 
the people of Hempstead and at the South Side are 
distressed, and that he is of opinion that such pro- 
ceedings tend to convert Whigs to Tories." * 

But this same Committee of Cow Xeck was not 
distinguished for moderation. In their records of 
March iS, 1776, it is written, 

" Whereas sundr>' disaffected persons have lately 
moved into this Neighbourhood whereby this Dis- 
trict instead of being an Asylum for the Good and 
Virtuous, is become a nest of these noxious vermin, 
it has therefore become a part of prudence and in its 
effects, of necessity to put an end to such proceed- 

' A"i. Ar,h::rs. series iv.. vol. v. p. 371. 



4l8 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

ings in future by the most speedy & effectual meas- 
ures for the publick good. 

" Be it therefore resolved that no manner of per- 
son after the first of April next presume to move 
into this district without producing to this Commit- 
tee, a certificate signed by the chairman of the Com- 
mittee from whence they last removed, of their being 
friendly to the cause of their bleeding country. 

" Benj. Sands, 

" Chairman." * 

A week later, March 27, this autocratic Committee 
passed an act of excommunication against one of 
their neighbours: 

" Whereas Israel Rogers one of the disarmed 
in this district being since charged with the 
counteracting the measures carrying on for the 
preservation of American liberty, on examination, 
the Complaint appeared well founded & it was 
therefore the opinion of this Committee that the 
said Israel Rogers be held in bond for his good be- 
havior. But on the resistance of this order, it 
became the part of expediency to reprobate this vile 
man as an enemy to his country, and unworthy the 
least protection ; and do hereby strictly enjoin all 
manner of persons in this District immediately to 
break off every kind of civil, mechanical and com- 
mercial intercourse with this deluded and obstinate 
person, or they will answer the contrary at their 

peril. 

"Benj. Sands."' 

' Am. Archives, series iv., vol, v., p. 406. 
« Ibid., p. 518. 



ABUSE OF MEETING-HOUSES. 419 

Martial law had been proclaimed throughout Long 
Island, the oath of allegiance to the Union was re- 
quired not only from those whose loyalty was un- 
shaken, but from those who held as legitimate the 
authority of the Convention of New York and of 
the Continental Congress,' Many Whigs complied 
through fear; others sought refuge within the 
American lines in Westchester and in Connecticut. 
The British army became the resort of criminals 
and desperadoes, as well as of the conscientiously 
conservative. Many of the latter class suffered 
greatly from the extortions of those who should 
have been their protectors. The exactions of the 
British officers were unreasonable in the extreme ; 
woods were cut down, fences stolen, purveyance 
enforced, and soldiers quartered in private houses. 
At Huntington, at Babylon, and at Foster's 
Meadow the meeting-houses were torn down to 
furnish material for building barracks. At Hemp- 
stead, the Presbyterian Meeting-house was turned 
into soldiers' quarters and Saint George's Church 
used as a storehouse. The stones from the village 
burying-ground, where were crowded the graves of 
one hundred and thirty years, were torn up to be 
used as hearth-stones and in building ovens. The 
Dutch Churches at Brooklyn, Flatbush, Flatlands, 
New Utrecht, Gravesend, Bushwick, Jamaica, and 
Newtown, the Presbyterian house at Newtown, and 

' General Howe after the Battle of Brooklyn wrote Lord George 
Germaine that " The Inhabitants of Long Island are in general loyal ; 
they were forced into rebellion, and received the army with open 
arms as their deliverers." 



420 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

the old Quaker Meetinsr-house at Flushinfy were 
used as hospitals, as prisons, or as barracks from 
1776 to 1783. 

After the escape of the American army from 
Brooklyn, the British found many of the cattle the 
Whigs had taken from the Loyalists to prevent their 
use by the invaders. Notice was given to the own- 
ers to claim them, to prove loyalty, and to take them 
away. This was allowed in case of milch cows and 
yearlings, but all fat cattle were retained for the use 
of the army with promises of ample payment. " But," 
says Jones in review of the campaign, " in violation 
of his word [General Howe's], in breach of honour 
and of the public faith by him pledged, not a man 
ever received a farthing. Some of the applicants 
were damned for rebels, and ordered about their 
business ; others were threatened with the Provost 
for their impudence." The property of Loyalists 
appropriated to the use of the army, " was charged 
to the Crown at a round price, which if fame speaks 
truth was equally divided between the immaculate 
general who commanded at the time, and the yet 
more immaculate Charnier." 

Pillaged alike by friends and foes, by the officers 
of the King for whom they had risked all, by the 
kinsmen and neighbours from whom they had dif- 
fered in opinion, suffering equally from rebel depreda- 
tions and the license of the royal army, the Loyalists 
of Long Island passed through ten anxious, sorrow- 
ing years. The details of ravage and oppression 
from either side come do\yn in contemporary jour- 



PETER ONDEKDONK'S NOTE-BOOK. 42 1 

nals,' in family letters and traditions, and are attested 
in the Town Books whose entries were made through- 
out these troublous times. 

So also, the Whigs suffered when near a military 
post, or when a brief ascendancy gave courage to 
their opposers. Just before the Evacuation of New 
York, Sir Guy Carleton told the farmers of Long 
Island that if they would bring in their bills for sup- 
plies furnished to, or taken by, the army, he would 
see them paid. The claims were to be laid before a 
Justice of the Peace in the several townships, and 
when certified to be presented to the Board of 
Claims in New York. In Suffolk County these docu- 
ments were filed in the office of the Town Clerk of 
Huntington. The claims of Huntington were based 
on receipts from British officers for ^7249-9-6., a 
sum deemed not a quarter of the amount due." But 
the Board of Claims adjourned before the bills could 
be presented, and no adjustment was ever made. 

The Note-book of Peter Onderdonk of Flower 
Hill gives terse comment upon passing events: 

" 1779, April 12. Be it remembered that 18 
Frenchmen [Canadian wood cutters] were billeted 

' See Rivington's Gazette, Gaine's Mercury, and Holt's yottrnal 
for account of the daily depredations occurring. 

"^ Examples of the claims are as follows : 

" Nov. 12, 1777. Zophar Piatt's ox-team was pressed by Major 
Cochran to carry the boards ripped off his barn from Huntington to 
Jericho. The Major also took 40 lbs of butter from his wife and 
carried it to Col. Tarleton's Quarters without pay." 

" 1780. Taken from Annanias Carle by Col. Tarleton, a fat 

beast worth ;^25. No pay." 



422 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

on me in order to cut all the wood belonging to 
Wm. Cornell and Richard Sands. 

' Where Tyranny holds up its head 
There glorious Liberty is fled.' 

" 1782, Nov. 13. Captain Westerhagen came here 
with his Co. to quarters (A German hireling) & with 
violence drove my sick daughter Eliza with Jannetje 
Rapalje out of their sick beds. Ingratitude! He 
quit his quarters here Jan. 7, 1783 — a German hire- 
Hng!" 

Then, as ever in war, the burden fell heavily on 
women. Freelove Birdsall was wife of the lawless 
whaleboater, Captain Benjamin Birdsall. His rob- 
beries reacted on his family, and with her little chil- 
dren, his wife was compelled to seek safety in 
Dutchess County. The simple pathos with which, 
writing from Dover, she addressed the Convention 
for relief, expressed the anguish of many a suffering 
mother, loyal or whig : "A heart full of trouble has 
been my fare since the Island was given up." She 
appended a certified list of the cattle, etc., taken by 
" the King's troops and the Tories, the worst," 
adding : " They have plundered my House of many 
valuable things ; left me many hard Curses and 
threats about my Reble husband & but just a 
living." • 

In the fall of 1776, October i6th, a petition was 
presented to the Howes ^ to restore civil power in 

* Hist. MSS. Am. Revolution, vol, ii., p. 239. 

* See Appendix iv. , p. 507. 



ADDRESS TO GOVERNOR TRY ON. 423 

place of the military rule which prevailed over Long 
Island. Its writers were much condemned for its 
servile style, but it was not consciously so ; it was 
written merely in the conventional language of the 
time. The memorial was courteously received by 
Lord Howe, who promised a reply after consultation 
with his brother. Sir William. But no answer was 
ever given. Judge Jones sums up the injustice of 
the case, saying : " On Long Island were the richest 
countries of the province ; they paid two-thirds of 
all provincial taxes laid in the Colony, and contained 
about 60,000 inhabitants including refugees. The 
laws of the land should have governed the whole. 
All power should have been vested in Civil Magis- 
trates. General Assemblies have been called, and 
everything put on the same footing as before the 
Declaration of Independence." 

Two months after the Battle of Brooklyn, October 
2 1st, the people of Queens County addressed his 
Excellency, William Tryon, Governor of the Pro- 
vince of New York : 

" We, the Freeholders and inhabitants of Queen's 
County are happy once again to address your Ex- 
cellency in the capacity of Governor of the Province. 
Anxiously do we look forward to the period when 
the disobedient shall return to their duty and the 
ravages of war cease to desolate this once flourishing 
country, and that we may be restored to the King's 
most gracious protection, we entreat your Excel- 
lency to present our Petition, and rely on your 
known humanity and benevolence for the exertion 
of your influence in behalf of the well-affected 



424 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

County of Queens that it may again in the bosom 
of peace enjoy the royal favour under your Excel- 
lency's paternal care and attention. Signed by desire 
and in behalf of the freeholders of Queens. 

" David Golden." 

The petition follows, bearing the names of nearly 
thirteen hundred men. 

In November, Kings County sought to make 
peace with the royal commissioners, and addressed 
to them a similar document : 

" Your Excellencies, by your Declaration bearing 
date July 14, 1776, were pleased to signify that the 
King is desirous to deliver his American subjects 
from the calamities of war& other oppresions which 
they now undergo, and to restore the Colony to his 
protection and peace, and by a subsequent Declara- 
tion dated Sept. 19, 1776, having been also pleased 
to express your desire to confer with his Majesty's 
well-affected subjects on ' the means of restoring the 
public tranquillity and establishing a permanent 
union with every Colony as part of the British 
empire.' 

" We, therefore, whose names are hereunto sub- 
scribed, freeholders and inhabitants of King's County 
in the Province of New York, reflect with the ten- 
derest emotion of gratitude on this instance of his 
Majesty's paternal goodness and encouraged by the 
affectionate manner in which his Majesty's gracious 
purpose has been conveyed to us by your Excel- 
lency, who has hereby evinced the humanity and 
those enlarged sentiments .which form the most 
shining characters, beg leave to represent to your 



THE KING'S COUNTY ADDRESS. 425 

Excellency that we bear true allegiance to our right- 
ful sovereign, King George the Third, as well as 
warm affection to his sacred person, crown and 
dignity, to testify which, we and each of us have 
voluntarily taken an oath before Wm. Axtell, 
Esq., one of his Majesty's Council for this Province 
in the following words, viz.: — / do sincerely promise 
and swear I will be fait Jif ill and bear true allegiance 
to his Majesty King George the Third and that I will 
defend his croivn and dignity against all persons what- 
soever. So help me God. 

" That we esteem the constitutional supremacy of 
Great Britain over these Colonies and the other de- 
pending parts of his Majesty's dominion as essential 
to the union, security and welfare of the whole 
empire, and sincerely lament the interruption of 
that harmony which formerly subsisted between the 
parent state and these her Colonies. We therefore 
humbly pray that your Excellency will be pleased 
to restore this County to his Majesty's peace and 
protection." 

This Memorial is signed by four hundred and fifty 
names.' 

A little later, December 3d, the County Com- 
mittee and the committees of the townships, assem- 
bled in the church at Flatbush, assured Governor 
Tryon that they " regret and disclaim all powers of 
Congress, totally refusing obedience to it as repug- 
nant to the laws and constitution of the British 
Empire, undutiful to our Sovereign and ruinous to 
the welfare and prosperity of the country." 
' See Appendix v., p. 525. 



426 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

The American cause was at low ebb during the 
fall and early winter. Even Connecticut was willing 
to retrace her steps. In December, " the General 
Court released all prisoners ; but the Governor ap- 
pointed and empowered a committee to proceed to 
New York to make submission to the King, and if 
possible preserve their charter from forfeiture, their 
estates from confiscation and persons from attain- 
der." ' The victor}' at Trenton changed the aspect 
of affairs and the proposed submission was never 
made. 

There is much of interest in the letters of Gov- 
ernor Trj'on to Lord George Germaine w ritten at 
this time ' : 

" Dec. 24, 1776^ 

" Mv Lord : 

On the i6th Inst. I received the Militia 
of Queen's County at Hempstead where 800 men 
were mustered and on the Thursday following, I 
saw the Suffolk Militia at Brookhaven where near 
800 men applied, to all of whom, as well as the 
Militia in Queen's Co. I have in my presence admin- 
istered an oath of allegiance and fidelity. 

" I took much pains in explaining to the people 
the iniquitous Artts, ettc. that have been practised 
on their credulity to reduce & mislead them, and I 
have had the satisfaction to observe among them a 
general return of confidence in the government. A 
verj' large majority of the inhabitants of Queen's 
Co. have indeed steadfastly maintained their Royal 

* Jones's HisL New Y^rk during the Revfflmti(}ny toL >., p. 135. 

* See Rentemb-raMcer, yoI. iu., part ii., p. 295. 



GOKEXNOR rJfrOA"S LETr&RS. 4:; 

principles as have small districts in Suffolk Co. 
Some men from Southhampton and Easthampton 
townships who attended the Review assured me that 
Rebel parties from Connecticut were then on the 
Easternmost part of the Island, which prevented in 
general the settlers from attending my summons, 
but they are very desirous to live in peaceable 
obedience to his Ma***s authority. 

" Three Companies I learned have been raised out 
of Suffolk Co. for the Rebel Anny. most of which I 
was made to understand would quit the service if 
thev could sjet home. 

" I have the pleasure to assure your Lordship 
that through the whole of the town. I did not hear 
the least murmer of discontent, but a general satis- 
faction expressed at my coming among them, and to 
judge from the temper vie disposition I perceived 
among them, there is not the least apprehension of 
anv further commotion from the Inhabitants of 
Long Island. All are industrious in bringing to 
Market what Provisions the Island affords. 

"While on Long Island I gave a certificate to 
nearly 300 men who signed the Declaration pre- 
sented by the King's Commissioners in the Procla- 
mation of the 30th of November last. Large bodies 
of the people have already taken the benefit of the 
grace therein offered them." 

Again he writes from 

" New York. 20. Jan. 1777. 

" My Lord : 

I have solicited Gen. Howe to give me 
800 stands of arms for the Loyal Inhabitants in 



428 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

Queen's Co. which he was pleased to grant & ac- 
cordingly last week they were sent to Col : Ludlow to 
distribute among the more faithful subjects.* 

** The Inhabitants of King's Co. through the rec- 
ommendation of Mr. Axtel, a member of the King's 
Council, and Col : of the Militia of that county, have 
contributed iJ^300 toward the raising of Col : Tan- 
ning's Battalion of Provincials. This laudable spirit 
I shall encourage, and have already recommended 
to the Society of Quakers to distinguish their 
Loyalty & zeal by Acts of Liberality in furnishing 
the Provincial corps with some necessary's of Cloth- 
ing of which they are in great want." 

The NcivYork Gazette of March 31st gives the fol- 
lowing: "On Thursday last, Thomas Willett, Sheriff 
of Queen's Co. attended by a number of gentlemen, 
waited upon his Excellency, Governor Tryon, with 
an added expression of their warm attachment, and 
regret at his leaving the country, hoping that he 
may be restored to health and again return to gov- 
ern a loyal and grateful people in dignity and happi- 
ness, to which his Excellency made a respectful 
answer." 

In June, Governor Tryon writes that " His Majes- 
ty's approbation of the conduct of the Militia of 
King's Co. in raising a sum of money for the en- 
couragement of Col : Fanning's Battery encouraged 
me to forward the spirit among the Districts of the 
Province within the limits of the Army. Queen's & 

' On February nth he writes : " They were received with demon- 
strations of joy and the professed determination to use them in the 
defence of the Island." 



A TTITUDE OF THE MONTA UK INDIANS, 429 

Suffolk Counties are now forming contributions for 
the comfort and encouragement of the Provincial 
troops." 

About this time, Guy Johnson wrote to Lord 
Germaine : " I have had an interview with the 
Montok Indians on Long Island, who though few 
in number and surrounded by disaffected people have 
offered their services whenever the General would 
please to make use of them." The opportunity did 
not come, and the Long Island Indians took no part 
in the war. 

During the winter which followed the Battle of 
Brooklyn, the end seemed near to the waiting 
Loyalists, and the result certain. The Reverend 
Joshua Bloomer writes from Jamaica to the Secre- 
tary of the S. P. G. in April: " I feel myself happy 
to have it in my power to write from a land restored 
from Anarchy and confusion to the blessings of 
Order and good Government. The arrival of the 
King's Troops and their success on this Island, 
have rendered every Loyal subject of whom there 
are a great many here, happy. Previous to that 
event the Rebel Army which was quartered at New 
York, had assumed the whole Power and their Gov- 
ernment was in the highest degree Arbitrary and 
tyrannical. Loyalty to our Sovereign was in their 
judgment the worst crime and was frequently pun- 
ished with great severity." 

" The principal members of my congregation who 
had conscientiously refused to join in their measures 
excited their highest resentment. Their homes were 
plundered, their persons seized, some were com- 



430 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

mitted to prison, others sent under a strong guard 
to a distant part of Connecticut where they were 
detained as prisoners for several months. . . . 
The services of the Church also gave great offence, 
the Prayers for the King and the Royal Family 
being directly repugnant to their independent 
scheme, they bitterly inveighed, and frequently by 
threats endeavoured to intimidate the minister and 
to cause him to omit those parts of the Liturgy." ' 

General Howe's forces were gradually withdrawn 
from the Island. The Loyalists believed they were 
to be protected by the troops raised on Long Island 
by Oliver de Lancey." Raised ostensibly for its 
defence, the commission bore the words, " or other 
exigencies," which phrase permitted their with- 
drawal, or justified any license. The first battalion 
of the brigade was under the command of General 
de Lancey, with John Harris Cruger as lieutenant- 
colonel. After a winter at Oyster Bay it was 
ordered to King's Bridge, but later returned to 
Long Island and was stationed at Huntington. The 
second battalion, under Colonel George Brewerton, 
had, as next in command, the General's eldest son, 
Stephen de Lancey. The battalion was sent to 
Georgia under Colonel Campbell and distinguished 
itself in the Southern campaigns. Colonel Stephen 
de Lancey succeeded Major Andr(6 as Adjutant and 

' Documentary History of New York, vol. iii., p. 338. 

* Oliver de Lancey, descendant of the noble Huguenot immigrant, 
Etienne de Lancey, raised three battalions of fifteen hundred men. 
They were formed into a brigade of which he was general. At the 
close of the war. General de Lancey went to England and died at 
Beverly, Yorkshire, in 1785, in his seventieth year. 



THE ENCAMPMENT AT JAMAICA. 43 1 

finally became Barrack-master of the British Empire. 
The third battalion, under Colonel Gabriel Ludlow 
and Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Hewlett, was made 
up entirely of Queens County men. At different 
times during the war, it was stationed at Lloyd's 
Neck, at Oyster Bay, at Herricks, Hempstead, Flat- 
bush, and Jamaica. It was sent to Brookhaven in 
the Suffolk County expedition, and sometimes 
crossed to the Connecticut main, for plunder, to aid 
refugees, or to obtain recruits. Of its commanding 
officers, their neighbour. Judge Jones, says: "They 
were well-esteemed on the Island ; resolute, bold, and 
intrepid. Zealous loyalists from principle, and both 
had been sufferers in the cause of their King." 

In 1778, the brigade was ordered elsewhere and 
the people told to raise militia companies and take 
care of themselves. General de Lancey's head- 
quarters had been at Jamaica in the house of the 
Reverend Matthias Burnett, and later, at Waters 
Smith's. Mr. Burnett was the only Presbyterian 
minister in the Province who was a friend to the 
Crown. As a Loyalist, he was allowed to preach 
throughout the war, and his influence alone saved 
the Meeting-house from destruction, but after the 
Peace, such was the vindictive spirit of the victorious 
that he was then obliged to leave his parish and 
home. 

Jamaica was occupied by British troops during 
the entire war, and was especially thronged in 
winter. On the hillsides north of the village, rows 
of huts thatched with reeds and sedge, or covered 
with sods, extended for a mile east and west, with 



432 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

cross-streets between. The parade-ground lay be- 
tween the huts and the village. The surrounding 
hills covered with heavy forest were entirely bare 
before the end of the war. 

In this inactive service, the oflficers amused them- 
selves in ways little in accord with the state of the 
country. Rivington's Gazette of August 13, 1779, 
makes the following, one of many similar announce- 
ments: "A number of excellent fox-hounds having 
been with great difficulty collected, there will be 
Hunting every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday 
on Hempstead Plains. One guinea subscription to 
those who wish to partake of this amusement. Half 
a guinea for a bag fox delivered to Cornet Staple- 
ton at Hempstead. Highest price for dead Horses." 

Bull-baitings and other " good, old English sports " 
were attempted. In November, 1780, three days' 
games in honour of the King's birthday were held 
at Ascot Heath on Flatland Plains. A purse of 
sixty pounds, a saddle, bridle, and whip, were the 
prizes for the winning horses. A foot-race was to 
be run by women, for a " Holland smock and a 
chintz gown worth four guineas." The regimental 
bands played " God save the King " every hour. 
At Christmas and at Easter were similar sports. 

Hempstead, the most loyal town, suffered more 
than any other, both from the incursions of the 
whale-boat men, and from the ravage of the royal 
army. The village was then a hamlet of but nine 
houses, besides the churches and the three taverns. 
In 1778, the Seventeenth Light Dragoons were sta- 
tioned there under Colonel Birch, than whom no 



OTHER DEPREDATIONS. 433 

officer was more execrated. The Presbyterian 
Meeting-house was taken as barracks, later used as a 
guard-house, as a prison, and finally, removing the 
floor, it was turned into a riding-school. In I779» 
the Meeting-house in the loyal District of Foster's 
Meadows was torn down by Colonel Birch, who 
wished its material for military use. At Fort Neck, 
the " Refugees House," belonging to Thomas Jones, 
in which he had sheltered a band of homeless 
Loyalists, was burned. " The Cage " at Hemp- 
stead had been built as a town-jail. Colonel Birch 
wished it as a wash-house, but the Justice, Samuel 
Clowes, declared that " it belonged to the Town, and 
could only be given up by vote of the Town." 
Birch replied that " their consent was quite imma- 
terial, he should have the Cage." A whipping-post 
was put up beside the old grave-yard and daily 
used. 

Every winter, the Queen's Own, and the Sixteenth 
Light Horse, as well as the Seventeenth, were quar- 
tered at Hempstead, and often, in the summer, the 
horses of a regiment were frequently turned into 
fields of freshly-headed oats, or of clover ready for 
the scythe. Just before the Evacuation of New 
York, Colonel Birch collected two thousand sheep 
on Hempstead Plains, and cutting off their ears, 
called on the owners to prove property. As this 
was then impossible, he sold them for ^2000, re- 
tained as a personal perquisite. 

The regiments landed at Whitestone by General 
Clinton, on his return from the expedition against 

the French fleet under Rochambeau in the summer 

28 



434 EARLY LOXG ISLAXD. 

of 1 780, plundered the country round/ Going into 
winter quarters at Flushing, Jamaica, and Newtown, 
the devastation continued. Farmers were obliged 
to hide their poultry, sheep, and swine in their cel- 
lars. When the troops left Flushing in the spring, 
David Golden said there "was not a four-footed 
animal but dogs, nor a wooden fence left in town." 

Lloyd's Neck, Huntington, and Setauket were par- 
ticular points of rendezvous and of attack. The for- 
mer was occupied by the British during the entire 
war.^ In 177S, a fort — Fort Franklin, named for 

' On the high ground in Flushing village, was a beacon pole (where 
the Methodist church now stands), one of a series to earn,- the alarm 
to Janiaica, where were most of the British army, should the French 
attempt to land on the Island. 

* With what result is shown in the following letter of John Lloyd, 
Jun., to the Supervisors of Queens County, written from 

" QCEEXVILLK, Nov. I5. 17S4. 

" Gentlemen : 

Since I was at Jamaica at tlie meeting of tlie Supervisors 
of Queen's Co. I have made a very exact calculation of the ability of 
Queen's Village, compared with its former situation and am fully of 
the opinion it will not bear a \-aluation of more than one third of 
what it was before the war. 

" I have no doubt you would be of the s;\me opinion were you to 
be on the spot and view the horrid waste and depredation committed 
by a vindictive and cruel enemy. 

*' Our timber and fences are all gone and our buildings except the 
house I live in which is cntiYely out of repair, so much so as to be 
unlit for the reception of tenants. 

" Being well assured that you will do justice to the Proprietors, I 
sliall add but that I am, gentlemen 

" Vour most obedient 

" Humble Servant 

" John Llovd, Jun." 
— Hishyricai Alagasifii, series iii., vol. iii., p. 43. 



OCCUPATION OF LLOYD'S NECK. 435 

William Franklin — was built on the west side of the 
Neck, overlooking the beautiful Oyster Bay. Three 
years later it was given over to the Associated 
Loyalists.' Thither came for a brief visit Prince 
William Henry, Duke of Clarence, afterward " the 
Sailor King," then a boy of seventeen on board the 
Prince George^ 

Just before the war, the Lloyds had cleared a hun- 
dred acres of the primeval forest growth. On this 
expanse lay the parade-ground, while sloping to the 
south were the cabins and gardens of the soldiers, 
or later of the eight hundred Refugees assembled 
there in the spring of 1781. On July 12th of that 
year the Neck was attacked by a force sent from 
Newport by the Comte de Barras, consisting of 
three frigates bearing two hundred and fifty men, 

' " The Honourable Board of Associated Loyalists," organised 
December 2S, 17S0, with Governor William Franklin as President, 
was formed, at the suggestion of Lord Germaine, of refugees within 
the British lines. Jones says : " They were licensed for indiscrimi- 
nate plunder ; of the rebels first, but if they were not handy, of the 
neutrals and loyalists." Three societies were formed ; that on Long 
Island devoted itself to the plunder of the Connecticut coast. " The 
Board cost the Government at least ;^30,ooo a year." — Jones, vol. 
ii., p. 300. 

■ Rivington's Royal Gazetle, August 7, 17S2, gives account of a 
ceremony at Flushing, where on August ist the Prince reviewed and 
presented colours to the King's American Dragoons, Colonel Ben- 
jamin Thompson, about leaving for Huntington. A canopy was 
erected on ten columns, twenty feet in height, under which were the 
young Prince, Admiral Digby, and many distinguished ofticers. Four 
mounted troops, and two unmounted, defiled before them. " A 
semi-circular bower was erected for the ladies present." An ox was 
roasted whole, "spitted on a hickorj' sapling twelve feet long, sup- 
ported on crotches and turned by handspikes." 



43 6 EARLY LOXG JSLAXD. 

and several Connecticut whale-boats. They landed 
in the early morning, but retreated before the un- 
expected strength of the place without venturing 
an attack. 

Huntington, from its convenient harbour and as 
the outlet of a richly wooded country, was a most 
important post. In 1777, the provincial troops 
under De Lancey were stationed there. The old 
Meeting-house, built in 1665, rebuilt fifty years 
later, was made a depot for military stores, while 
the soldiers wrought havoc with the cherished li- 
brary of the old and vigorously patriotic pastor, the 
Rev. Ebenezer Prime, and spread terror through the 
village. All contemporaneous records and local tra- 
ditions emphasise the gratuitous and wanton insults 
endured by Huntington. But the soldiers of the 
Crown were not alone in offering insults to their 
opponents. A letter is preserved ' written at Hunt- 
ington, July 23, 1776, giving an account of the 
rejoicings over the news of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence. The Declaration, and the Resolutions of 
the Provincial Congress, were read, " applauded by 
the animated shouts of the people who were present 
from all the distant quarters of this District. After 
which the flag which used to wave on the Liberty 
Pole having ' Liberty ' on one side, and 'George III.' 
on the other, underwent a reform, i.e., the letters 
'George III.' were discarded, being publickly ripped 
off, and then, an effigy of the person represented by 
those letters being hastily fabricated out of base 
material, with its face black, like Dunmore's J^irginia 
Regiment, its head adorned with a wooden crown 

^ Am. Archives, series v., vol. i., p. 543. 



BENJAMIN THOMPSON AT HUNTINGTON. 437 

and stuck full of feathers like Carlctoiis and John- 
sons savages, and its body wrapped in the Union 
instead of a robe of State, and lined with gunpowder 
which the original seems to be fond of— the whole, 
together with the letters above mentioned, was hung 
on a gallows, exploded and burned to ashes. In the 
evening, the Committee of this town with a large 
number of the principal inhabitants sat around the 
general board and drank thirteen patriotic toasts." 

In June, 1779, General Tryon was at Huntington 
on his return from Fairfield, but their direst woe was 
in 1782, under the brief command of the accom- 
plished Colonel Benjamin Thompson.' Then the 
old Meeting-house was torn down, and its timber 
used in building a fort upon "Burying Hill," where 
the line of earthworks may still be faintly traced." 

' Later, eminent in science as Count Rumford. One of the last 
official acts of Lord Germaine, was the commission of his under sec- 
retary as lieutenant-colonel, to raise a body of cavalry for service on 
Long Island. Much undeserved reproach has fallen on this able 
man. Benjamin Thompson, exiled from his early home, owed little 
to New Hampshire or to Massachusetts, but forgetful of undeserved 
expatriation, the Count of the Holy Roman Empire chose his title 
from the little village on the Merrimac, and bequeathed to Harvard 
College a fund equivalent to $26,000, to endow a " Professorship of 
Applied Science," to teach the utility " of the physical and mathe- 
matical sciences and for the improvement of the useful arts and the 
extension of the industry, prosperity and well-being of society." 
(Rumford's will, Sept. 28, 1812.) He also devised to " the Govern- 
ment of the United States of America, all his Books, Plans and De- 
signs relating to military matters to be deposited in the Library or 
Museum of the Military Academy of the United States as soon as 
such Academy shall have been established in the United States." 

' Huntington met but the inevitable fate of war. See Ellis's Life 
of Ruiitfo7-d, pp. 12S-45, which quotes the partisan accounts of Silas 
Wood, Nathaniel Prime and others, but with a more just and favour- 
able interpretation of Colonel Thompson's course. 



438 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

In August, 1777, Colonel Richard Hewlett, with 
two hundred and sixty Queens County Loyalists, 
had fortified himself in the Presbyterian Meeting- 
house at Setauket, Breastworks six feet high were 
raised at the distance of thirty feet, and four swivel 
guns were mounted in the building. Colonel Abra- 
ham Parsons, chief of the whale-boat privateers from 
whose forays no Loyalist was safe, crossed the Sound 
from P^airfield with three boats. His force num- 
bered perhaps five hundred men." Landing on 
Crane's Neck before the earliest dawn, they dragged 
a small cannon through the sand in their silent march 
to the slightl)' stockaded church. An insolent de- 
mand for unconditional surrender was curtly refused. 
" I will stand by you as long as there is a man left," 
said Hewlett to his men. The assailants fired a vol- 
ley which was as quickly returned by the besieged, 
and a fierce contest was only averted by the ru- 
moured approach of a British fleet, at which report 
Parsons hastily fled. 

But shortly before the attack on Setauket, Colonel 
Meigs, who had been taken prisoner at Quebec, and 
was then on parole, set out May 2d from Sachem's 
Head (now Guilford, Connecticut) with four hun- 
dred men. They descended upon Sag Harbour, 
attacked and stripped a foraging party of De Lan- 
cey's Brigade, numbering seventy, and made their 
escape " without the loss of a man." General Par- 
sons, writing from New Haven, three weeks later, to 
Governor Trumbull, says in substance that Colonel 

' The number is vftriously estimated from one hundred and fifty 
(Onderdonk) to one thousand (Jones). 



ATTACK ON FORT ST. GEORGE. 439 

Miegs left Sachem's Head with one hundred and 
sixty men. He landed three miles from Sag Har- 
bour an hour after midnight, and attacked the enemy 
in five places, while Colonel Troop took possession 
of the vessels. An English schooner of twelve guns 
kept up a constant fire for an hour. The Americans 
burned all vessels in the harbour, " killed and capti- 
vated all men," destroyed one hundred tons of hay, 
much grain, ten hogsheads of rum and sugar, and 
took ninety-nine prisoners. Congress voted a sword 
to Colonel Meigs in approval of this exploit. 

In the summer of 1780, Sir Henr)^ Clinton, who 
the previous year had ridden through Long Island to 
review the troops at Southampton, established a post 
on the Tangiers-Smith Manor of St. George on 
Great South Bay. About two hundred Refugees 
from Rhode Island were assembled there. They 
lived by plundering the country round, and the 
commander-in-chief gave no attention to the com- 
plaints of the inhabitants, who finally appealed to 
Connecticut for help. In November, eight boats 
under Colonel Benjamin Tallmadge left Fairfield, 
and landing at Old Man's, marched to Fort St. 
George. The fort was surprised at three o'clock 
in the morning, demolished, its stores destroyed, and 
fifty-four prisoners taken. Colonel Tallmadge re- 
turned by way of Coram where he burned three 
hundred tons of hay. The next year he surprised 
and burned Fort Slongo on Tredwell's Bank, Smith- 
town. 

Private houses were often the object of the whale- 
boat raids. The residence of Colonel Gabriel Ludlow, 



440 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

and of his brother Judge George Duncan Ludlow/ 
near Hyde Park, were attacked by a party of thirty 
nnen in August, 1779. They were robbed of money, 
plate, furniture, and slaves, while the owners were 
taken prisoner to Connecticut. Three times the 
house of the King's Justice, Thomas .Smith of 
Centre Island, was broken open and plundered. 
Richard and John Townsend, William Nicolj, Colo- 
nel Richard and Benjamin Floyd were other suffer- 
ers. At one time, June 30, 1781, forty men under 
Major Fitch, by order of Governor Trumbull, landed 
at the foot of Cow Neck. Half the party marched 
four miles inland to the house of Justice Kissam, 
where they took prisoners his son. Major Kissam, 
his brother-in-law, Dr. Benjamin Tredwell, and a 
neighbour, Thomas Piersoll. They were taken to 
Stamford and thence to Wethersfield, where they 
were kept on parole until exchanged in the following 
October. 

The whale-boat men not only ravaged the North 
Side, but would drag their boats across the portage 
at Canoe Place, and entering Great South Bay, cap- 
ture the craft engaged in trade with New York. 
Vain were appeals to Admiral Howe for protection. 

' George Duncan Ludlow was appointed Judge in 1769. He had 
been in business in New York, but later, " purchased a genteel farm 
in Queen's Co. and retired to the pleasures of a country life." He 
was descended from General Ludlow of Cromwell's army, and 
" though he possessed all the virtues of his ancestor, he inherited 
neither his enthusiasm, his Republican principles, nor his Presbyte- 
rian religion." — Jones's Hist, of N. F. , vol. i., p. 231. 

Judge Ludlow's house was finally burned by accident in 1817, 
while the residence of William Cobbett. 



COMMISSION OF WHALEBOATERS REVOKED. 44 1 

" He chose to keep his cutters at sea," says the dis- 
gusted Jones. With each year the ravages of the 
whale-boaters grew worse. In a letter to Governor 
Clinton, August 20, 1781, Caleb Brewster, after de- 
scribing minutely their outrages, ends by saying : 
" There is not a night but they are over, if boats tan 
pass ; a person cannot ride the roads but they are 
robbed." Much of it was mere freebooting for private 
ends, and although under commission from Governor 
Trumbull, so indiscriminate and so cruel were they 
in their plunder that the Convention of New York 
requested that the commission be revoked within 
New York.' 

In 1777, June 12th, the Long Island Refugees at 
Saybrook addressed the Committee of Safety at 
Esopus, to remind the Committee of previous peti- 
tions for relief: "Our distress is daily increasing, 
our wants constantly multiplying, the strictest prohi- 
bition of passing to Long Island to get over any- 
thing to support ourselves on & little or nothing be 
had here for paper Currency & hard money we have 
not. Harvest is approaching and some or most of 
us have bread-corn growing on our land. We cannot 
but flatter ourselves that your sentiments will con- 
cur with ours, that if we may by your addressing 
the Governor and Counsellors of this State obtain 
Permits to pass & Repass as opportunity may pre- 
sent, to take over to the Relief of our families the 

' "August 7, 1 791. Resolved, That the Governor of the State of New 
York be, and he is hereby desired immediately to revoke the said 
Commissions by him granted, so far as they authorise the seizure of 
goods on Long Island, or elsewhere on land not within the State of 
Connecticut." 



442 EARL Y LOXG I SLA .YD. 

forage which will otherwise fall into the possession 
of more than savage Enemies. We hope the laws 
of self-preservation will operate so that we may 
escape the hands of the Enemy & give our suf- 
ferings some Relief." 

Some attempts at retaliation were made by the 
Loyalists. In 1779, General Silliman was captured 
at Fairfield and brought to Lloyd's Neck. Thence 
he was taken to New York, and finally to Flatbush, 
where he was detained until exchanged for Thomas 
Jones, the jurist, and. in his later years, the piquant 
historian of the war. In order that there might be 
a prisoner of equal importance to exchange for 
General Silliman, Judge Jones was deliberately cap- 
tured, — his third imprisonment. Nov'ember 4th, a 
party of twenty-five men from Newfield Harbour 
(now Bridgeport) crossed the Sound and at night 
marched across the Island to Fort Neck, the ances- 
tral seat of the family. There, during the progress 
of a ball, they seized the host and carried him to 
IMiddletown. The exchange was not effected until 
the following Mav. 

No recriment in the roval ser\ace was more dis- 
tingiuished than the Queen's Rangers, under Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel John Graves Simcoe, later Governor 
of Canada. Organised in the neighbourhood of New 
York, it enrolled more than six hundred Loyalists. 
Of the various regiments made up in America, it 
had the exclusive and valued privilege of enlisting 
both " old country men " and deserters from the 
rebel army. 

The Militaiy Journal of Colonel Simcoe, covering 



SIMCOE AT OYSTER BAY. 443 

more than five years of sen'ice, gives many details 
of his Long Island campaigns. He was sent, in the 
fall of 1778, from King's Bridge to winter quarters 
at Oyster Bay. The fort to which he came was on 
high ground south of the village. It had been built 
in 1776 by De Lancey's New-Raised Corps to pro- 
tect the harbour from privateers and whale-boaters. 
After Simcoe's departure it was occupied by Fan- 
ning's Corps, under Major Grant, and in the summer 
of 1783 by Richard Hewlett. 

The day after his arrival, November 19th, Simcoe 
writes : " The whole corps was emplo\-ed in cutting 
fascines. There was a centrical hill which totally 
commanded the village : the outer circuit of this hill 
in the most accessible places is to be fortified by 
sunken fleches and abatis ; the summit was covered 
by a square redoubt. The Guard-house in the 
centre cased and filled with sand, was rendered 
musket-proof. Twenty men will sufifice for its 
defence." 

Soon after, Sir William Erskine came to Oyster 
Bay, intending to remove the corps to Jamaica to 
replace his own regiment ordered to the East of the 
Island. Colonel Simcoe represented strongl}' the 
need of maintaining the post at Oyster Bay, a coigne 
of vantage which enabled him to watch the Sound, 
while quietly learning the sympathies of the in- 
habitants. There was but a small garrison under 
Colonel Ludlow at Lloyd's Neck, twelve miles east- 
ward. The nearest camp was at Jamaica, thirty 
miles distant. The situation was " an anxious one 
and required all vigilance and a system of diligence 



444 EARL V LONG ISLAND. 

to prevent an active enemy from taking advantage 
of it." 

Simcoe remained at Oyster Bay until the middle 
of the next May, 1779, when he was transferred to 
Westchester County. The winter had been one of 
unusual mildness, peach-trees blooming in March, 
and the Queen's Rangers had been daily drilled in 
feats of horsemanship and all military exercises. 
The post was an important one, not merely as a 
central depot for the forage collected for New York, 
but as a training-schools where new recruits were 
taught their various manoeuvres. Before leaving 
America, General Howe announced as a special 
mark of royal favour that his Majesty was pleased 
to make permanent the rank of the Loyalist officers, 
and the Queen's Rangers became the First American 
Regiment. 

In August, Simcoe returned and the corps Avas 
reinforced by Colonel Dremar's Hussars and a troop 
of Buck's County Dragoons. The constant drill of 
both infantry and cavalry continued through the 
fall. They held themselves in readiness to relieve 
Lloyd's Neck, which was expecting attack. Its 
capture and the possession of the Sound was the 
partial object of that expedition against New York 
which was intended on the arrival of D'Estaing's 
fleet from the West Indies. On October 9th, the 
troops were ordered to be ready for embarkation, to 
be transferred to points where they would be more 
available in the defence of New York. Ten days 
after. Colonel Simcoe went with the cavalry to 
Jamaica, and a week later the infantry, under 



THE MARCH EASTWARD. 445 

Tarleton, followed, marching to Yellow Hook, 
whence they crossed to Staten Island. 

The next summer Simcoe returned to Oyster Bay. 
Under orders to open a land communication with 
the fleet in Gardiner's Bay, he moved eastward in 
the latter part of July, Joined by a hundred mounted 
militia from Huntington. After having advanced 
some distance beyond, they fell back to Coram, 
where they remained a fortnight, but on August 
15th they again marched forward and were joined 
by the King's American Regiment, which had been 
ordered to River Head. There he met Sir Henry 
Clinton on his way to a conference with Admiral 
Arbuthnot, whose fleet was anchored off Shelter 
Island. Clinton sent Colonel Simcoe forward as his 
representative, but the Admiral had sailed before his 
arrival.' 

The Queen's Rangers returned to Oyster Bay 
August 23d. They had undergone a most fatiguing 
march of nearly three hundred miles in extremely 
hot weather. They had expected to " subsist on 
the country," and as much of their way lay through 
the pine barrens, they had found great difficulty in 
getting provisions. A militia-dragoon sent express 
to the Adjutant-General, was waylaid and robbed in 

' So says Simcoe. Jones, in his condemnation of the entire con- 
duct of the war, assures us that the dislike of Clinton was not confined 
to the Loyalists whom he betrayed and plundered, nor to the Whigs 
against whom he fought, lie made a progress through Long Island 
under protection of the Seventeenth Light Dragoons, in order to meet 
Admiral Arbuthnot off Southold, but Arbuthnot declined any com- 
munication with " a General so regardless of the honour and dignity 
of his Sovereign and the good and benefit of his country." 



446 EARL Y LONG ISLAND. 

Smithtown. Colonel Simcoe was directed to levy 
on the inhabitants for eighty pounds, of which " one 
half was to reimburse the militia-man for what had 
been taken from him, and the other to recompense 
him for the chagrin he must necessarily have felt at 
not being able to execute his orders. This was 
probably the only contribution levied on the county 
during the war. The officers of the Queen's 
Rangers had prided themselves, and justly, on pre- 
venting, as much as officers " by precept, example, 
and authority could do, all plundering and maraud- 
ing," Being cantonned with other troops, the 
depredations committed drew on the Queen's Rang- 
ers the displeasure of Sir Guy Carleton. The corps 
left Oyster Bay, September 23d, going to Jamaica 
for a time. Colonel Simcoe afterward served in Vir- 
ginia, and on Christmas Day, 1782, his regiment was 
enrolled in the British army. 

Colonel Simcoe's toilsome march through Suffolk 
was not the first military invasion of the county. 
" The Inhabitants of the east end of Long Island 
were chiefly presbyterians, consequently republican, 
and well-affected to the Cause of Rebellion," saj-s 
Jones. Grazing was their chief pursuit, and in Sep- 
tember, 1778, General Tryon, with General de Lancey 
second in command, had gone there to secure the 
large herds of cattle, A month was spent in indis- 
criminate plunder of Loyalists and Whigs. While 
the officers were one day driving with Colonel Ben- 
jamin Floyd of Brookhaven, the soldiers robbed his 
orchards and poultry yards, destroyed his grain, and 
burned his fences. The cattle needing to be fat- 



GENERAL TRYON'S IKVASIOy OF SUFFOLK. 447 

tened were marked G. R. and left to be taken the 
next spring. Then. *' The Yankees crossed the 
Sound and sent them to feed the rebel army at 
MorristowTi." 

Long Island was the chief, almost the onlv source 
of the fire-wood consumed in New York during its 
long occupancy by the British army. A regimental 
order, dated " Innerswick, near Flushing," shows 
the sj'stem of apportionment used. The woodland 
from Little Xeck to Cold Spring was divided into 
six districts, under the superx'ision of as man}" offi- 
cers. The amount assessed to the \*arious land- 
owners for that year, 1781, ^"as six thousand and two 
cords. The owners were to receive ;^3.i5, but were 
never paid.' Major John Kissam, of the Queens 

7;r :rirrs for siq^dies erf wood and hay, see Am. Archhia^ 
ser.ri T.. - ;'. ii., 564-6. The scale <rf pikes for wood, per cxxd. 

Oat. Hictoiy. 

Jr:„ 71_i^^- to Cow Xeck £^. ^4-io 

Cow Xe<i to Hontington. 45 s. 70 s. 

^ 3r J- 45 •*• 

^::i: Xe^ Vcxk for the nse 

s* 

z is shown below. 

- 77*- 
S 5. ve 10 s. per bn. 

- - - - . - y S. 

:-ri- 3 s. " •• Wheat noar 80s. " cwt. 

t2i 26s. " ha. Rjreflon- 30s. " " 

- - IDS. " " Boacwheat 26s. " " 

Oats 7 s, * •* IndiaD meaL . . . 2; >. " " 

June. 1782. 

Good, wdl cored Ei^^ish hay 6 s. rr:.: 

Salthay 3 s. 

Good dean straw 25.3 d. ■' *' 



448 EAKLY LONG ISLAND. 

County Militia, writes : "Should any be so obstinate 
as to refuse to cut their proportion and to deliver it 
at the appointed place, they would be subject to a 
double portion cut on them." 

In the Clerk's office at Nieuw Utrecht, is the 
copy of a proclamation issued June i6, 17S0, by 
James Robertson, " styling himself Captain-General 
and Governor-in-Chief of the Province of New York," 
ordering the amounts of wood for the barracks in 
New York to be cut and delivered before August 
15th, at ten shillings the cord ; for Kings County, 
150c cords; for Queens County, 4500 cords; for 
Western Suffolk, 3000 cords, to be cut on the lands 
of the notorious rebels, William Smith and William 
Floyd. Wood-yards were established at Jamaica, 
Flushing, Newtown, Hempstead Harbour, Oyster 
Bay, Flatbush, and Brooklyn, where every farmer 
was expected to deliver his quota of wood. The 
year before, when General Clinton had wished to 
rebuild and to add to the number of Long Island 
forts, the people were ordered to cut from their 
lands and bring to Brooklyn, "fascines, faggots, 
planks, logs, palisadoets, etc.,'' for which no payment 
was made. 

The Long Island farmers were required to deliver 
at the hay-yards in New York, half of all the hay, 
" salt or upland," which they should cut, and were 
solemnly promised the safety of the remainder. 
That also was taken from them, and had not the 
winter been one of exceptional mildness, no cattle 
could have survived. Those who ventured a com- 
plaint of the breach of faith, were imprisoned as 



SUSPENSION OF COURTS OF JUSTICE. 449 

" contumacious." Throughout the war, horses and 
oxen were taken from the plough for the use of the 
army, and if returned at all it would be only after 
the season's need was past. Fifty horses were 
turned into the orchard of a Loyalist among heaps 
of cider-apples valued at two hundred pounds. ,A 
hundred horses were littered with the newly cut 
wheat of Israel Oakley, a lieutenant in the Queens 
County Militia under General Tryon. 

For all these abuses there was no redress. The 
courts of justice were closed,* the civil law, the 
law of England and of the Provinces, was super- 
seded by military power. Justices of the Peace 
were permitted to try cases of petty larcency only, 
but were obliged to act officially in pressing horses 
and wood for the use of the army. The courts 
were closed in Queens County from September, 
1773, until May, 1784. The Whig Committee of 
Safety served in lieu thereof until August 27, 1776. 
Martial law then prevailed until the establishment 
of peace. 

A strange interpretation of the Prohibitory Act 
of November, 1775/ forced the people to believe 

' George Duncan Ludlow, Thomas Jones, and Whitehead Hicks 
were Judges of the Supreme Court of the Province. The first two 
were attainted and their estates confiscated. The third escaped that 
fate, which the caustic Jones explains by saying : " He had friends 
in the Assembly, and besides, he was a Presbyterian. Such was the 
partiality of the Rebel Assembly of the State of New York." 

■' This Act related only to commercial affairs, a retaliation for the 
Act of Congress forbidding trade with Great Britain. (See British 
Statutes at Large, vol. xxxi., p. 135.) It was never intended to apply 
to Courts of Justice, or to deprive the Colonies of any of the privi- 
leges of Englishmen, but the military authorities declared New York 

a garrison, and that only military law could there exist. 
29 



450 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

themselves declared rebels, and thus led the more 
timid to accept the Declaration of Independence. 
From this misconstruction, " first adopted by Con- 
gress, brought thence and propagated in New York 
by Galloway, originated," says Jones, " all the 
miseries, disorders, injustice, plunder, extortion and 
a thousand other unjust, illegal, arbitrary acts, en- 
dured by the loyal more than 60,000 within the 
British lines." 

Martial law thus prevailed until the establishment 
of peace. From the Battle of Brooklyn until July, 
1780, there was no pretence at the administration of 
justice on Long Island. General Robertson, " by 
the hocus-pocus of a proclamation," then estab- 
lished at Jamaica a Court of Police, of which Judge 
Ludlow, called " the little tyrant of the Island," 
was made Superintendent, a Court pronounced " un- 
constitutional by English laws, and incompatible 
with the liberties of a free people," — a Court which 
tried all civil cases, and criminal cases below grand 
larceny, without a jury and by unsworn judges. 

The inconvenience merely was a serious grievance 
to the people of Eastern Nassau, obliged, to collect 
a small debt, to travel nearly the length of the 
Island, at much expense and loss of time. Judge 
Jones's ire over the removal of the Justices of the 
Peace was hot, and not without cause. " By what 
reason," he asks, " common sense or justice, by 
what rule the whole of the Island, and all of Staten 
Island, the borough of Westchester and manors of 
Morrissana and Fordham, containing above 60,000 
loyal inhabitants could be made a part of the gar- 
rison and the whole subject to military law and 



STEADFAST LOYALTY OF QUEENS. 45 1 

arbitrary Courts of Police, deprived of Courts of 
justice and the laws of the land ? " 

But, despite all loss and contumely, all sufferings 
in mind, body, and estate, the better class remained 
unswerving in its loyalty. In 1780, August 5th, 
Queens County addressed General Robertson in a 
document which expressed the general feeling of the 
Island : 

" The principles which have inspired a large 
majority of the people of Queens County to oppose 
the beginning and progress of those dangerous 
measures that have led that county to the most 
fatal convulsions, do still animate us to promote his 
Majesty's service by our utmost exertions to accel- 
erate the happy day when relations, friends and 
fellow-citizens shall re-embrace each other and return 
to the offices, pleasures and employments of Peace, 
when we shall enjoy our ancient privileges, partici- 
pate in an extensive commerce, be exempt from 
all taxation not imposed by ourselves, and be in- 
cluded in one comprehensive system of felicity with 
the parent country." 

Col. Hamilton ' John Hewlett 

Major Kissam Joseph French 

Valentine Hewlett Peters, Esq. Dr. Seabiiry 
Daniel Kissam, Esq. Capt. Chas. Hicks 

Thos. Willet " Benj. Hewlett 

Richard Alsop " Chas. Cornell 

Sam'l Clowes " Theo. Van Wyck 

Thos. Smith " Geo. Rapalje 

Capt. B. Hoogland 

In behalf of the County." 
* Colonel of the Seveirteenth Queen's County Militia. 



452 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

With the havoc of war, the havoc wrought by 
either side, the loyal people of Long Island were 
opposed by a more insidious foe. The legislation of 
the New York Assembly bore heavily on the entire 
Southern District, but was especially aimed at the 
friends of the British Government in Westchester 
County and on Long Island. The Act passed June 
30, 1778, " more effectually to prevent the mischiefs 
arising from the influence and example of persons 
of equivocal and suspicious character in this State," 
was virtually an Act of Banishment. By it were 
expatriated many men of good estate and of the 
best worth. The Act of Attainder and Confisca- 
tion passed at Kingston, October 22, 1779, by the 
third session of the New York Legislature, is but 
vaguely known, and there have been many futile 
attempts at its palliation. Nothing can be said in 
its defence. It was in reality an ex post facto law, 
while the persons against whom it was aimed show 
that private jealousies and the possession of large 
estates which could be turned to public uses, were 
the exciting cause of this legislation. By it were 
adjudged and declared guilty of felony, and " to 
suffer Death as in cases of felony, without Benefit 
of Clergy," for " adherence to the enemies of the 
State," — fifty-eight of her best inhabitants, — three 
were women, eminent for high ofificial position, 
for private virtues, and for distinguished ability. 
Among them were these men from Long Island : 
Thos. Jones George Duncan Ludlow 

David Colden Gabriel Ludlow 

Daniel Kissam Richard Floyd 
George Muirson Parker Wickham. 



ACT OF ATTAINDER AND CONFISCATION. 453 

Besides the personal attainder, their estates and 
revenues were declared forfeited to and vested in 
the people of the State of New York. 

It is but fair to say that this disgraceful Act was 
not passed without protest. Drawn up by John 
Morin Scott, it originated with Sir James Jay,' 
Senator for the Southern District. It was presented 
at Poughkeepsie, June 24, 1778, but the session 
closed on the 30th with no action thereon. The 
second session opened at Poughkeepsie, October 
13th, and on the 27th, the Bill was read for the first 
time. A week later, the Assembly resolved to ad- 
journ until January. To this the Senate objected, 
being " anxious to have passed into a Law during 
the present meeting of the Legislature, an ' Act for 
Confiscation & Forfeiture ' then depending before 
them " ; but they finally yielded, and the Legisla- 
ture adjourned until January 27, 1779. The Bill 
was brought up by Mr. L'Hommedieu of Suffolk^ 

^ John Jay, little suspecting his brother's share therein, wrote 
Governor Clinton from Madrid, May 6, 1780: "An English paper 
contains what they call, but I can hardly believe to be your Confisca- 
tion Act. If truly printed, New York is disgraced by injustice too 
palpable to admit even of palliation." 

* The Long Island Members of the Assembly were : 

William Boerum \ c ^^■ r- 

\ of Kings County. 

Henry Williams ) 

Benjamin Birdsall \ 

Benjamin Coe s of Queens County. 

Daniel Lawrence ) 



David Gelston 
Ezra L' Hommedieu 
Burnett Miller 
Thos. Tredwell 
Thos. Wickes 



► of Suffolk County. 



454 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

on the next day. It was ordered to a second read- 
ing on February 9th, and was then referred to a 
Committee of the Whole. It was passed with 
amendments by the Assembly, on the 27th, and 
then laid before the Senate. It was freely discussed, 
but all attempts by the more moderate men to soften 
its severity were unavailing. It passed the Senate 
by a vote of ten to six. On March 14th, the Coun- 
cil of Revision presented their objections, but the 
Bill was passed over their veto by a vote of twenty- 
eight to nine. In the Senate, however, the Act 
received only a vote of eight to seven, and thus fail- 
ing of a two-thirds majority, the measure was lost. 
The Council of Revision, through their Chairman, 
Chancellor Livingston, objected to the Bill, because 
" repugnant to the plain and immutable Laws of 
Justice; because obscure and contradictory." 

At the Third Session of the Legislature, meeting 
at Kingston in August, the Bill was brought up on 
September 6th, and again referred to a Committee 
of the Whole. It passed with little debate, and 
became a law on October 22, 1779. It was, how- 
ever, of no effect until after the Treaty of Peace, 
and though then in direct opposition to Article 
Fifth, its provisions were at once relentlessly carried 
into effect. 

During the lingering negotiation of the Treaty 
between Great Britain and the United States, Long 
Island remained in the possession of the British 
army and under militaiy rule. When the Peace 
was formally concluded, Sir Guy Carleton, the last 
royal Governor of New York, made his plans for the 



FEARS FOR THE FUTURE. 455 

removal of the army : " I propose to resign posses- 
sion of Herricks and Hempstead and all to the east- 
ward on Long Island, Nov. 21st." The Sixtieth 
Ro3"al American Regiment marched out of Hemp- 
stead to the tune of " Roslyn Castle." The Hessians 
from the North Side came through Newtown, " fill- 
ing the roads," brightened by their varied uniforms, 
the Jager Corps in green, faced with crimson, the 
foot in blue, faced with white with yellow waistcoat 
and breeches. The evacuation was rapid. In Flush- 
ing, it was said : " In the morning there were thou- 
sands of soldiers around. In the afternoon they 
were all gone, and it seemed lonesome." In Jamaica, 
one day, the streets were patrolled by the High- 
landers in their picturesque garb ; the next, the 
American soldiers were there. Some delay occurred 
from the lack of transports. Even after the Evacua- 
tion of New York, November 25, 1783, a few troops 
were detained at New Utrecht and at Denvse's 
Ferry until December 4th. 

Nor was the departure of the army unregretted.' 
Uncertainty and suspense brooded over the Island. 
There was a vague dread of what was to come from 
a legislature openly hostile, and secretly vindictive, 
while they who should have been their protectors 
were faithlessly leaving them to the doubtful mercies 
of the victors. The saddest chapter in the history 
of Long Island was vet to come. 

' A year before, the people of New Utrecht addressed the Baron 
de Wollzogen, Commander of the Brunswick and Hessian troops 
stationed there, and "beg his acceptance of their warmest thanks 
fox the vigilant and attentive care which they have received," and 
express to the soldiers, the "highest sense of their good order and 
decorum." — Remembrancer ^ vol. xiv. , p. 267. 



XVIII. 



NEGOTIATIONS FOR PEACE. 



IT had long been evident to the people of Great 
Britain, if not fully recognised by the Govern- 
ment, that the war was wearing itself out. 
American success on the field was aided by the dis- 
sensions in Parliament, and the popular condemna- 
tion of the Ministry. The negotiations for peace 
dragged their weary length through the years 1782- 
83. John Adams had been, originally, the one 
American Commissioner. The French Minister was 
dissatisfied with his tone, and Congress had added, 
successively, Jay, Franklin, and Laurens.' Mr. Jay, 
who had negotiated the Treaty with Spain, did not 
come from Madrid until the last of June, and was 
then ill for a month. Mr. Adams, detained still longer 
at The Hague, did not reach Paris until October 
26th, after the triumphant conclusion of an alli- 
ance with Holland. Mr. Laurens had been cap- 

' Jefferson, then under heavy sorrow in the retirement of Monti- 
cello, had been also nominated, but the negotiation was so far ad- 
vanced before he was able to leave America that his appointment 
was recalled, and his only connection with the work was the final 
presentation to Congress of the Definitive Treaty. 

456 



THE MEMBERS OF THE COMMISSION. 457 

tured on his voyage and imprisoned in Tlie Tower, 
from which he was not released in exchange for Lord 
Cornwallis until the negotiation was nearly finished. 
The work of the Commission was therefore almost 
entirely in the hands of Franklin, the most able and 
experienced of its members, the most subtle ^nd 
the most bitter against England.' 

England was represented by Richard Oswald, a 
shrewd Scotch merchant, a " pacifical " man, a 
friend of Adam Smitli who had introduced him to 
Lord Shelburne. In October, was added Mr. 
Strachey, later Sir Henry, and Secretary of the 
Treasury under the brief Rockingham Ministry, 
known and trusted as thoroughly judicious. Lord 
Shelburne, recently Secretary of the Home Depart- 
ment, was Prime Minister from June, 1782, until 
February, 1783. His instructions to Osborne laid 
special stress upon the cause of the Loyalists. They 
trusted him implicity, and " Shelburne will never 
give up the Loyalists " was their constant cry. 

It was July 10, 1782, when Franklin gave to 
Oswald the American conditions of peace. He had 
already proposed that, to avoid border conflicts and 
to ensure a lasting peace, England should cede to 
the United States both Canada and Nova Scotia. 
The United States would then be able, by the sale of 

' Franklin was so esteemed by liis colleagues. Adams writes in his 
Diary, October 27th : " Franklin's cunning will be to divide us ; to 
this end, he will insinuate, he will intrigue, he will manrjeuvre. 
My curiosity will at least be employed in observing his invention and 
artifice. Jay declares roundly that he will never set his hand to a 
bad peace. Congress may appoint another, but he will make a good 
peace or none." — Works of John Adams, vol. iii., p. 3<;)0. 



458 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

wild lands, to make good the loss of private property 
on each side, either through confiscation or the in- 
evitable ravage of war. But Shelburne stoutly in- 
sisted that the Treaty should contain an Amnesty 
Clause providing for the Loyalists ; that no inde- 
pendence would be acknowledged which did not 
consider and adjust their claims. For this demand, 
there was not only the well understood Law of 
Nations,* but many precedents in both English and 
European history. The earlier civ-il wars of Eng- 
land had imposed no disabilities on the defeated 
party, and the policy had been always productive of 
most happy results. The United States could well 
be generous; indeed, the simple justice asked, was 
her wisest course. England, meanwhile, could not 
afford to abandon those who had so faithfully clung 
to their allegiance. 

Franklin declared most positively that nothing 
could be done for the Loyalists by the United 
States, as their property had been confiscated by the 
laws of particular States, sovereign in themselves, 
and over which Congress had no power. He argued 
that the English, by the seizure of certain Whig 
estates in South Carolina, had forfeited the right to 
intercede for their adherents, and further considered 

^ See Vattel, and Puffoidorf. A time-honoured justification of the 
Loyalists is in the Statute of the lith of Henry VII., chap, i, declar- 
ing : "By the Common-Law of England, the subjects are bound by 
their duty of allegiance to serve their prince against every rebellious 
power or might. That whatever may happen in the fortune of war 
against the mind of the prince, it is against all law and good con- 
science that such subjects should suffer for doing their true duty of 
allegiance." 



THE FIRST THE A TV PRESENTED. 459 

the reckless destruction of American property by the 
British troops, wherever stationed, an offset to the 
claims of the Loyalists. " Compensation of Refu- 
gees could be no part of the Treaty," was his ultima- 
tum.' 

Lord Shelburne had proposed that the boundary 
of Nova Scotia be placed at the Penobscot, or even 
at the Saco, there to form a province for the Loyal- 
ists, or that they be indemnified by the sale of the 
unoccupied lands of the West. To these sugges- 
tions, the American Commissioners gave no atten- 
tion. Oswald urged their restoration to civil rights. 
Jay replied that " their pardon was a question with 
which Congress could not meddle " ; the States being 
sovereign, they alone had authority to pronounce 
thereon. 

On October 5th, Mr. Jay presented to Oswald the 
terms of a Treaty to which Oswald assented. It 
consisted of a preamble, and four articles treating 
of boundaries, a perpetual peace, the rights of fish- 
eries, and the navigation of the Mississippi. No pro- 
vision was made for the Loyalists, and indeed. Lord 
Townshend, the Colonial Secretary, had previously 
written to Oswald offering, in order to hasten the con- 
clusion of a treaty, to waive any stipulations in their 
behalf. This abandonment of the Loyalists, it was 
well declared by the Opposition, " would blast for- 
ever the honour of the country." Before leaving 
Paris to lay the document before King George, both 

' In a talk between Franklin and Adams, the latter said : " I told 
him I had no idea of cheating anybody. The question of paying 
debts and of compensatin|^ tories were two." 



460 EAJiL Y LOXG ISLAXD. 

Osw'ald and Strachey made formal and separate de- 
mands, in writing, for the relief of the Loj-alists. 
The American Commissioners refused to consider 
their claims unless the English would make good all 
losses suffered from the depredations of the English 
army. Xo agreement was reached, and on Novem- 
ber loth, Mr. Strachej- hastened to London. The 
King was loath to accept the Treaty, but there was 
the risk that insistence on the rights of the Loval- 
ists might further protract the war and throw Amer- 
ica into a closer alliance with France. But Shelbume 
was true to the unhappy people whose protecrion 
he had undertaken. He worked hard for their 
restoration to citizenship, and with him \i*as the 
entire weight of public sentiment. 

Strachey believed Jay and Adams would make 
some concession rather than give up the Treaty as 
arranged, but realised the " obduracy " of Franklin, 
who stood fimih- against any restitution to the Loy- 
alists. He endeavoured to con\*ince the English 
Commission that thev had no claims upon England, 
for it was their misrepresentations which had led her 
to prolong the war. The American Commissioners 
were now one ' on the question, and they certainly 
expressed the dominant sentiment in the United 
States, 

' Jav vrroie fixMa Passr to R. L. Livingston, in Tnhr, 17S3 ; ** I 
bope for my pan that the States will adopt some principle on decid- 
ing 00 diese cases, and that it will be ssdi a one as by hoi^ pexfecdj 
consistait «ith justice and hnmanity will meet wiib tiie jq^^nobatio* 
not only of dispassionate nations at piesmit, b«t abo of dispassk»ate 
posterity haeaftM-." 



THE TURXIXG-POIXT. 461 

It might be urged most truthfully, that the 
nation was too poor to pay its own hungn,-, half- 
clad soldiers, had no money with which to make 
good the losses of its enemies. It was again pro- 
posed by the English Commission that the lands of 
the Mississippi Valley be sold for the purpose, or 
that as the British army still held New York, they 
should demand for giving up the city a sum of 
money sufficient to reimburse those who had suffered 
in their behalf. That this proposition received slight 
consideration from Franklin and his associates need 
not be said- 

Strachey returned to Paris within a fortnight, and 
the day after his arrival the Commissioners met. 
The Fisheries question was settled, and as Mr. 
Strachey remarked, '* The restitution of the property' 
of the Lo\*alists was the grand point on which a 
final settlement depended." — ** If the Treat}* should 
break off. the whole business must go loose and take 
its chance in Parliament." * 

On November 29th, the Commissioners met in Mr. 
Jay's apartment in the Hotel d'Orleans for a final 
discussion. Mr. Laurens was now present, and Mr. 
Fitzherbert. the British Minister to France. The 
American Commissioners then conceded that there 
should be no future confiscations, or further prose- 
cutions of the Loj-alists ; that all pending prosecu- 
tions should cease, and that Congress, in behalf of 
the Refugees, should recommend to the several 
States and their Legislatures the restitution of con- 
fiscated property. This document was signed No- 
' Fitz-Maarice's Ufe if Ske&mnu^ toL in., p. ^8. 



462 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

vember 30, 1782. Its articles were provisional upon 
the conclusion of a peace between England and 
France. This treaty was effected and its prelimi- 
nary articles were signed January 20, 1783. The 
news was received in Philadelphia, March 14th. 

The Definitive Treaty between England and the 
United States, concluded September 3, 1783, was 
the exact reproduction of the Provisional Treaty. 
Never was a greater diplomatic triumph than the 
success of the American Commissioners : a case un- 
paralleled in intricacy, men unused to political nego- 
tiation, fettered by the rigid instructions of a narrow 
Congress, opposed to the most skilled diplomatists 
of England and France. As has been well said by 
a Canadian writer : ' " One knows not at which most 
to marvel, the boldness, skill and success of the 
American Commissioners, or the cowardice, igno- 
rance and recklessness of the British diplomatists." 
But the Treaty of Versailles, although a triumph, was 
not an honourable one ; the element of mercy which 
most adorns the victor was absent. With gratula- 
tions of the successful party were mingled the outcry 
of the cheated Loyalists and the indignant sympathy 
of their nation. The full measure of opprobrium 
fell upon the English Ministry who had thus de- 
serted their tried supporters. 

The Articles of the Treaty, relating to the Loyal- 
ists, and after much bitter debate, finally agreed 
upon, are the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth.^ Of these, 
the Fifth, accepted as a compromise for the right of 

' Ryerson's History of the Loyalists, vol. ii., p. 63. 

^Article fourth. " It is agreed, That Creditors on either side shall 



ARTICLE FIFTH OF THE TREATY. 463 

drying fish on the shores of Newfoundland, was the 
one which bore most directly upon the unhappy 

meet with no lawful impediment to the recovery of the full value in 
sterling money of all bona fide debts heretofore contracted." 

Article fifth. " It is agreed, That the Congress shall earnestly 
recommend it to the Legislatures of the respective States, to provide 
for the Restitution of all Estates, Rights, and Properties, which h^ve 
been confiscated, belonging to real British subjects ; and also of the 
Estates, Rights, and Properties of those Persons, residents in Dis- 
tricts in Possession of his Majesty's Arms, and who have not borne 
arms against the said United States ; and that Persons of any other 
description shall have free liberty to go to any part or parts of the 
Thirteen United States, and therein to remain Twelve Months un- 
molested in their endeavors to obtain the Restitution of such of their 
Estates, Rights, and Properties, as may have been confiscated ; and 
that Congress shall also earnestly recommend to the several States, a 
Reconsideration and Revision of all Acts or Laws regarding the 
Premises, so as to render the said Laws or Acts perfectly consistent, 
not only with Justice and Equity, but with that spirit of Conciliation, 
which, on the return of the blessings of Peace, should universally 
prevail. And that the Congress shall also earnestly recommend to 
the several States, that the Estates, Rights, and Properties of such 
last mentioned Persons shall be restored to them, they refunding to 
any Persons who may be now in possession, the bona fide price 
(where any has been given) which such Persons may have paid on 
purchasing any of the said Lands, Rights, or Properties, since the 
Confiscation. And it is agreed. That all Persons who have any In- 
terests in Confiscated Lands, either by Debts, Marriage Settlements, 
or otherwise, shall meet with no lawful impediment in prosecution of 
their just Rights." 

Article sixth. " That there shall be no future Confiscations made, 
nor any Prosecutions commenced against any Person or Persons for 
or by reason of the Part which he or they may have taken in the 
present War ; and that no Person shall on that account suffer any 
future Loss or Damage, either in his Person, Liberty, or Property ; 
and that those who may be in confinement on such charges at the 
Time of the Ratification of the Treaty in America, shall be immedi- 
ately set at liberty, and the Prosecutions so commenced be 
discontinued." 



464 EARL V LONG LSLAND. 

Loyalists. For their protection it was to all intents 
and purposes blank paper, although Shelburne hon- 
estly believed their rights secured thereby. The 
American Commissioners conceded its provisions, 
well knowing the " earnest recommendation of Con- 
gress," to the several States would be of no avail, 
although since the coming together of the Conti- 
nental Congress its " recommendations " to the thir- 
teen colonies had been esteemed as law. " It was left 
to local avarice and to local resentment to deal with 
the property of banished exiles," ' and the victims 
Averc as indignant over the desertion of the English 
as at the chicanery of the Americans. 

In Parliament the condemnation of the Fifth 
Article was bitter and sincere. In the debate over 
the preliminary articles in February, 1783, Lord 
North lamented the fate of the Loyalists: "Never 
was the honour and humanity of a nation so grossly 
abused as in the desertion of these men. Nothing 
could excuse our not having insisted on a stipula- 
tion in their favour"; while Fox "wished no terms 
had been made rather than such as they were." 
Lord Sackville declared that " the abandonment of 
the Loyalists was a thing so atrocious that if it had 
not been already painted in its horrid colours, he 
could not describe its cruelty," and that " a peace 
founded on the sacrifice of those unhappy subjects 
must be accursed in the sight of God and men." 
Lord Loughsborough exclaimed that " neither in 
ancient nor modern history had there been so shame- 

^ Ryerson's History of the Loyalists, vol. ii., p. 6i. 



CONDEMNATION IN PARLIAMENT. 465 

ful a desertion of men who had sacrificed all to their 
duty and to their reliance on British faith." 

The House of Lords as a body, in just and gener- 
ous indignation, severely condemned the Treaty, and 
declared the nation bound to protect the Loyalists 
and to make good their losses. The Commons 
passed a vote of censure, and Lord Shelburne re- 
signed. It is the irony of events, that he who had 
been their most steadfast friend bore the brunt of 
the blame. He was painfully conscious of all that 
the Treaty lacked, and in attempted defence said in 
Parliament : " I have but one answer to give the 
House, the answer I give my own bleeding heart — a 
part must be wounded that the whole do not perish. 
I had but the alternative either to accept the terms 
proposed, or to continue the war." Judging others 
by his own singleness of purpose, he believed the 
recommendation of Congress would really afford 
some relief to the Loyalists. If not, " Parliament 
could take cognisance of their cases and impart to 
each suffering individual the relief which reason, 
perhaps policy, certainly virtue and religion require." 
He added that at one-fifth the cost of a year's cam- 
paign the Loyalists could be recompensed with as 
much comfort as they had ever enjoyed. 

The King, in opening Parliament, spoke with 

warm feeling of the Americans who from loyalty to 

him, or from attachment to the mother-country, 

"had relinquished their properties and professions," 

and hoped that " generous attention " would be 

shown them. To that end, the Compensation Act 

of July, 1783, was designed, appointing a Commitee 
3° 



466 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

** to enquire into the Losses and Services of all such 
Persons who have suffered in Rights, Properties and 
Professions during the late Unhappy Dissentions in 
America in consequence of their Loyalty to his 
Majesty and attachment to the British Govern- 
ment." 

The Articles of Peace were ratified by Congress, 
January 14, 1784. Copies of Article Fifth were 
then sent to the Legislatures of the several States 
with the words : " It was the desire of the Congress 
to have it communicated to them for their Consid- 
eration." This delay was in itself a severe trial to 
any Loyalist who had hoped for immediate aid and 
reinstatement. The State Legislatures very nat- 
urally interpreted the message to mean that com- 
pliance with the Act was at their own pleasure, and 
by most of them it was entirely neglected. South 
Carolina was alone in taking any legislative measures 
to restore the forfeited estates, measures defeated 
by the passion of the populace. 

On January 30, 1784, the Governor, George 
Clinton, read before the Senate of the State of New 
York, the Fifth Article and the accompanying 
Recommendation. The subject was referred to a 
Committee of the Whole, who reported, March 30th, 
as follows : 

''Resolved (if the Honourable House of Assembly 
concur herein) that it appears to this Legislature 
that in the Progress of the late War, the Adherents 
of the King of Great Britain instead of being 
restrained to fair and mitigated Hostilities which 
are only permitted by the Laws of Nations, have 



REPORT BY THE SENATE OF NEW YORK. 467 

cruelly massacred without Regard to Age or Sex, 
many of our Citizens, and wantonly desolated and 
laid Waste a great part of this State by burning not 
only single Houses and other Buildings in many 
parts of the State, but even whole Towns and Vil- 
lages and destroying other Property throughout a 
great Extent of Country and in Enterprises which 
have nothing but Vengeance for their Object. 

"And, that inconsequence of such unrestrained 
Operations, great numbers of the Citizens of this 
State have from affluent Circumstances been reduced 
to Poverty and Distress. 

" Resolved, That it appears to this Legislature that 
divers of the Inhabitants of this State have contin- 
ued to adhere to the King of Great Britain after 
these States were declared Free and Independent, 
and persevered in aiding the said King, his Fleets 
and Armies to subjugate these United States to 
Bondage, 

'■^Resolved, That as on the one Hand, the Rules of 
Justice do not require, so on the other, the Publick 
Tranquillity will not permit that such Adherents who 
have been attainted should be restored to the Rights 
of Citizenship. 

" And that there can be no reason for restoring 
Property which has been Confiscated and forfeited, 
the more especially as no Compensation is offered 
on the Part of the said King and his Adherents for 
the Damages sustained by this State and its Citizens 
for the Desolation aforesaid. 

" Resolved, therefore, That while this Legislature 
entertain the highest sense of national Honor, of the 



468 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

Sanction of Treaties and of the Deference which is 
due to the Advise of the United States in Congress 
Assembled they find it inconsistent with their Duty 
to comply with the Recommendation of the said 
United States on the subject matter of the said 
Fifth Article of the said Definitive Treaty of 
Peace." ' 

This Legislature, while rejecting the Recommen- 
dation of Congress, further passed those laws which 
so disgraced the fair fame of the new State, and 
effectually prevented any benefit from the Treaty 
coming to the unfortunate Loyalists. Their action 
was not the less virulent that Governor Clinton was 
inexorable in his hatred of all who had not renounced 
their British allegiance. The famous Trespass Act 
of May 4th," was called " An Act for Relief against 
Absconding and absent Debtors: and to extend 
effectual Relief in cases of certain Trespasses, and 
for other Purposes therein mentioned." " Other 
purposes " was a phrase of convenient scope, and it 

' In the Legislature of 1784 which thus expressed itself, the Sena- 
toi'S from Long Island were William Floyd, Ezra L'Hommedieu, 
and Samuel Townsend. The members of Assembly were : 
Johannes E. Lott 1 

Rutger Van Brunt \ Kings County 

Benjamin Coe \ 

Hendrick Onderdonk ' Queens County 
James Townsend ) 

John Brush 
David Gelston 

Ebenezer Piatt \ Suffolk County 

Jeffrey Smith 
Thos. Youngs. 
* See Greenleaf's Laws of New York, vol. i., p. 115. 



LEGISLATION AGAINST THE LOYALISTS. 469 

was under its cover that the imposition was made of 
;^ioo,ooo on the Southern District, " as compensa- 
tion to other parts of the state, they not having 
been in condition to take an active part in the war ! " 
Of this amount, Long Island gave £T,y,ooo. 

On May 12, 1784, were passed two laws ; the 
one " to preserve the Freedom and Independence of 
the State & for other purposes," was practically, a 
disfranchisement and perpetual banishment of the 
Loyalists. The other,' "An Act for the Speedy 
Sale of the Confiscated and forfeited Estates within 
this State," contained fifty-eight sections, and made 
it impossible for the attainted Loyalist to profit by 
the conditions of the Treaty, to return to, or to 
re-purchase his own house or lands. 

The former of the Acts of May 12th was one of 
attainder and disfranchisement, holding guilty of 
misprision of treason, " All persons who after the 
9th of July, 1776, had accepted or held commissions 
under the King of Great Britain, or who had been 
concerned in fitting out any privateer or vessel of 
war, to cruise against, or to commit hostilities upon 
the property or the persons of the citizens of the 
United States or their allies, or who had served on 
board such privateers as Captains, Lieutenants or 
Masters, or who had exercised any office in the 
Courts of Police, or any office in the Court of Admi- 
ralty established under the authority of Great 
Britain, and also all those who after the 9th of July, 
1776, had voluntarily gone" to, remained with or 
joined Great Britain at any time during the war, or 
' See Greenleaf's Laws of New York, vol. i., pp. 127-49. 



470 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

had left the State before November 25, 1783, and 
had not returned, if found hereafter within the 
State." 

It is further enacted that "All persons falling 
under any of the descriptions before mentioned 
should be forever thereafter disqualified from enjoy- 
ing any Legislative, Judicial or Executive ofifice 
within the State, and forever debarred from voting 
at an election for any ofifice whatever." This act 
disfranchised two-thirds the citizens of the City and 
County of New York, of Richmond, and of Kings; 
one-nfth of Suffolk, nine-tenths of Queens County, 
and the entire Borough of Westchester. It was 
passed in a frenzy of hatred over the veto of the 
Revisionary Council,' with no pretence of meeting 
their objections, presented as follows : 

" The Council object to the Bill, 

" First, Because by the first enacting clause, the 
voluntarily remaining with the Fleets and Armies of 
the King of Great Britain is made an offence highly 
penal ; whereas, by the Known Laws of all Nations, 
Persons who remain with their Possessions when the 
Country is overrun by a conquering Army are at least 
excused if not justified ; and should our Laws be 
made to retrospect in a manner so directly contrary 
to the received opinion of all civilised nations and 
even the known principles of common Justice, it 
would be highly derogatory to the honour of the 
State and fill the minds of our fellow-citizens with 

' The Council of Revision consisted of Governor Clinton and the 
two most able lawyers of New York, the Chief Justice, Lewis Morris, 
and John Sloss Hobart. 



OBJECTIONS OF THE COUNCIL OF REVISION. 47 1 

the Apprehension of suffering in the future some 
heavy Punishment for that conduct which is at 
present perfectly innocent. Besides, was this Bill 
free from the objections which lye against all retro- 
spective and ex post facto laws, the inconvenience 
which must unavoidably follow should it become a 
Law of this State, are fully sufficient to show that it 
is totally inconsistent with the public good : for, so 
large a Proportion of the Citizens remained in the 
Parts of the Southern District which were possessed 
by the British Armies that in most places it would 
be difficult, and in many, absolutely impossible to 
find men to fill the necessary Offices, even for con- 
ducting Election until a new Set of Inhabitants 
could be procured. 

" Secondly, Because the Persons within the several 
descriptions of offences enumerated in the first 
enacting clause cannot be judged guilty of Mis- 
prision of Treason but on Conviction. This must 
be a Prosecution commenced by reason of the part 
the Defendants may have taken during the War, 
directly in face of the Sixth Article of the Definitive 
Treaty, by which it is stipulated that * No further 
Prosecution shall be commenced against any person 
or persons, for or by reason of the part which he or 
they may have taken in the War, and that no Person 
shall on that account suffer any future Loss or 
Damage, either in his Person, Liberty or Property.' 

** Thirdly, Because by the second enacting clause 
of the said Bill the Inspectors and Superintendants 
of Election are constituted a Court, they being by 
the said Bill expressly authorised to inquire into and 



472 



EARLY LONG ISLAND. 



determine the several Matters in the first enacting 
clause, and their judgment is conclusive to dis- 
franchise. This is constituting a new Court which 
does not proceed according to the course of the 
Common Law and is especially against the Forty- 
first section of the Constitution." 

Such was the spirit of those in power — the domi- 
nant majority — that these sober counsels were of 
no avail. There only remained for the objects of 
their indiscriminate vengeance, that expatriation 
which scattered on tropical islands, or carried to 
build up a new province on the bleak shores of the 
Northern Atlantic, a hundred thousand of those 
whose energy and culture, whose gentle breeding 
and persistent purpose, would have been a rich 
heritage for the young nation who cast them out. 





XIX. 



THE LOYALISTS. 



ANY careful study of the closing of the Colonial 
period would be most incomplete without 
further mention of those devoted men whose 
undeserved fate gives a tragic element to the history 
of the new-born State. In the pseans of victory 
which closed the war and celebrated the conclusion 
of peace, there was one discordant note whose 
mournful tone swelled into the most solemn of 
threnodies. 

The sad story of the Loyalists of Long Island 
must give its dark undercurrent to any truthful 
chronicle of the revolutionary years. Their princi- 
ples were the natural outcome of the Colonial growth 
of New York, and their sufferings demand the tribute 
of impartial and reverent attention. But the worst 
was yet to come. They endured as much from 
British indifference and the rapacity of officers high 
in rank as from American vindictiveness. The 
malignity of their professed enemies did not cut as 
deeply as the apathy and the evasions of those who 
should have been their grateful protectors. Every 
revolution brings woe to the better class. of the com- 

473 



474 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

munity. It is intelligence and refinement which 
suffer most. Conservatism runs in the blood of the 
educated and stable members of any society, and a 
great political upheaval is their destruction. 

This was eminently true on Lon^ Island. The 
limitations of commerce and the restrictions upon 
manufacture so fatal to the development of a new 
country, more even than the supposed violation of 
their abstract aud constitutional rights, were the 
fundamental causes of the American Revolution. 
These causes were most potent in New England. 
The Middle and Southern States, from all the cir- 
cumstances of their planting and growth, were the 
pre-determined friends of established order, and in 
New York, nowhere were men more ardently loyal 
than on the Island of Nassau. 

The Colonists sought for redress of specified 
grievances, for a Bill of Rights, but therein were as 
sincere in their efforts to sustain the Government as 
were the " rebellious " Barons at Runnymede. The 
struggle was begun with no thought of Indepen- 
dence. They were forced to that end by a small 
and wavering majority. The Declaration of Inde- 
pendence was a breach of faith to the great mass of 
the people, as well as to the statesmen who had in 
Parliament zealously championed the American 
cause, to Chatham and Burke and Fox. Until 
then, Whigs and Tories differed only in the degree 
in which they held their allegiance to the King, in 
the faith they had in the honest intention of Eng- 
land to redress their wrongs, and in their measure 
of the rights of the subject as opposed to the con- 



CLASSES OF LOYALISTS. 475 

stitutional rights of the King. These relations were 
changed by the work of the Continental Congress in 
July, 1776, and they who did not accept its action, 
but still looked for reconciliation with the Home 
Government, were branded as traitors. 

In the new order of affairs then instituted, men 
were classed as " friends of Government " — the new, 
self-ordained government, — or as " Enemies to the 
Liberties of their Country." This expression gave 
place to the now obnoxious term of Tory, which 
losing its old political significance came to express 
everything that was despicable, and was applied to 
men as widely different in character and motives as 
the venerable Colden and the scheming Galloway. 

There were unquestionably two classes among 
those who adhered to the royal Government from 
sincere and disinterested motives, the men inspired 
by an innate principle of lo3^alty, to be maintained 
come weal or woe, and those who timidly feared 
the effect of any change in the standing order of 
affairs. There were also those whose adherence to 
England was from motives more or less mercenary. 
Prominent among them were the various ofificials of 
the Crown, numerous enough to be in a degree in- 
dependent of popular support and suspected of 
being informers. They were the most offensive to 
those who arrogated to themselves the name of 
Patriots. While the great body of American trades- 
men were those who rose up against the restricting 
Acts of Parliament, there were many merchants, 
whether of English or American birth, whose busi- 
ness was endangered, and who were forced to sign 



476 EARLY LONG LSLAND. 

agreements against the importation of British goods. 
These men, with selfish ends to serve, easily became 
smugglers, and were often in the pay of England. 

But the party took its tone from and was inspired 
by those men of nobler spirit, exalted in public and 
private life, loving America as their home but having 
grown up to look upon England as the mother-land ; 
ready to condemn and to oppose the unjust oppres- 
sion of the Government, but believing that calm re- 
monstrance could adjust all differences. Their 
strongest sentiment was an ingrained reverence for 
constitutional order, and most of all they dreaded 
the anarchy they believed would follow the over- 
throw of established authority and the substitution 
of popular rule. Many of them, however, while 
clinging to the Crown as long as there remained a 
shadow of its power, when the independence of the 
Colonies was acknowledged by England, would 
have become loyal subjects of the existing Govern- 
ment, acknowledging it as the authority dc facto, if 
not in their estimation de jure. But the United 
States in angry haste expatriated tens of thousands 
of her best citizens, one hundred thousand, one-third 
the white population of the new nation. 

Of the two periods in the history of the Loyalists, 
their treatment during the war and their fate after 
the conclusion of peace, the former has been already 
noticed. They formed a part of the population 
numerically important, still more so, when it is re- 
membered that in their ranks was much of the best 
blood of the country. There were at one time more 
than twice as many armed native Provincials, as 



NUMBER OF THE LOYALISTS. \'J'J 

were men under the command of Washington.' 
Fully twenty-five thousand loyal Americans were 
in the British army, and many officers experienced 
in the French and Indian wars.° 

Severe as was the legislation against the Loyalists, 
more to be condemned was the action of self-consti- 
tuted Committees who spread terror throughout the 
entire period of the war. Groups of men in any 
neighbourhood assumed authority, or received its 
semblance from the Provincial Congress, to spend 
their wrath upon any unoffending person who might 
come under their suspicion. A mob was invested 
with full power for domiciliary visits, inquisition 
into the political status of any person not active in 
the cause of the new Government, and for the ad- 
ministration of such punishment as seemed good in 
their eyes. Neutrality was impossible, and he who 
was not openly for them, was condemned as against 
them. The only choice for the Loyalists was to 
remain at home, waiting for peace, and exposed to 
these dangers, or, if seeking safety within the British 
lines, at the close of the war, there remained only 
confiscation and exile. 

' Winsor's Critical History of America, vol. vii., p. 193. 
^ Most noteworthy among these regiments were the 

King's Rangers, 

Queen's Rangers, 

King's American Regiment, 

Prince of Wales's American Volunteers, 

The Royal Fencible Americans, 

The British Legion, 

The Loyal Foresters. 
The House of Commons, June 17, 1783, by motion of Lord North, 
voted half-pay to the officers of these regiments. 



478 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

The action against the " Tories," as conducted by 
these self-appointed censors, ran in gradation from 
the endeavour to force opinion, to disarming, fines, 
imprisonment, confiscation, banishment, and death. 
Individual wrongs were never redressed by public 
justice; lawlessness was unrestrained. The State 
legislation added impetus to the mad career of pri- 
vate animosity. During the war every one of the 
thirteen colonies had passed acts against the Loyal- 
ists. A classification of offences existed, such as 
giving information to the English ; supplying the 
enemy ; piloting the enemy ; enlisting in the British 
army ; speaking against the authority of Congress ; 
going to another province ; refusing to renounce 
allegiance to Great Britain ; refusing to swear alle- 
giance to the United States. 

Early in the war many Loyalists had left the 
country. At the evacuation of Boston more than 
one thousand accompanied General Gage to Halifax. 
When the British left Philadelphia in 1778, three 
thousand loyal inhabitants followed them. On 
Long Island most of the people sought to remain in 
their homes and to follow their usual vocations. 
But the progress of the war broke up the quiet lif^ 
which had there prevailed. The persecutions which 
preceded and followed the Battle of Brooklyn were 
continued throughout its course, by the raids of the 
Connecticut whale-boaters and other lawless Whigs, 
by the occupancy of the British army, and by the 
indiscriminate plunder of the Board of Associated 
Loyalists stationed at Lloyd's Neck, who rarely dis- 
criminated between friend and foe. New York was 



FEARS FOR THE FUTURE. A^'J^ 

the Loyalist stronghold, containing more than any- 
other colony, and Queens County was the most 
loyal part of New York. At the close of the war 
more than one-third its people went to Nova Scotia, 
while Hempstead had provided for so many refugees 
that its poor-rates were trebled. All taxable inhabi- 
tants of Queens who had remained there during the 
Revolution were assessed fourteen pounds for the 
expenses of the war. 

As the war drew near its close and negotiations for 
peace were in progress, the Loyalists began to fear 
themselves abandoned, and that their fervent sacri- 
fices had been useless. Then, under date of August 
lo, 1782, they addressed this appeal' to Sir Guy 
Carleton, who had arrived in New York in April : 

" To their Excelleitcies Sir Guy Carleton, K. B., 
General and Commander-in-Chief, &c., &c., &c., and 
the Honourable Rear Admiral Digby, Commander-in- 
Chief of his Majesty's ships, &c., &c., His Majesty's 
Commissioners for restoring peace, &c., &c.,&e.: 

" The Loyal Inhabitants and Refugees within the 
British Lines at New York beg leave most respect- 
fully to present their united acknowledgements to 
your Excellencies for the ready and polite communi- 
cation you were pleased so obligingly to make to 
them of the contents of the letter sent by your 
Excellency to General Washington — respecting the 
negotiations for a general peace by the several 
powers at war, now at Paris ; and the proposal 
directed to be made by his Majesty of the indepen- 
dency of The Thirteen Provinces of America, in the 

' Remembrancer, vol. xiv., p. 326. 



48o EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

first instance, instead of making it a condition of a 
general treaty. 

" As it is impossible for us to express the conster- 
nation with which we were struck even on the proba- 
bility of so calamitous an event taking place, as 
that held out in the proposition stated, so we cannot 
suppress our feelings on a point so exceedingly 
momentous in its consequences to the British Em- 
pire and in particular to our own future peace, safety 
and happiness. 

" To preserve the British dominion entire and to 
evince our disinterested affection for his Majesty's 
sacred person and government, we hesitated not to 
step forth and hazard our lives and fortunes, confi- 
dently relying on the assurances repeatedly given to 
us by his Majesty, and firmly depending on the 
justice, magnanimity and faith of Parliament that 
we should never be deserted in a cause so just and in 
distresses so great and overwhelming. 

" With unfeigned gratitude we acknowledge his 
Majesty's paternal goodness and attention to the 
sufferings of his loyal subjects in America, for the 
protection hitherto offered them ; the bounties fur- 
nished and the great and spirited efforts made by a 
brave and generous nation to reclaim the Colonies 
to a due connection with the Parent State. 

" We have most pathetically to lament that such 
noble and more than equal exertions have failed ; 
although their failure has not been owing to any real 
implacability of the war. We take leave to assure 
your Excellencies that we have every reason to be- 
lieve there exists a majority of the people through- 
out the Province who are ardently desirous to be 



MEMORIAL TO SIR GUY CARLE TON. 48 1 

again reunited in his Majesty's just authority and 
government ; and that from a combination of cir- 
cumstances arising from various public distress, the 
spirit of re-union is now actually operating in several 
quarters to bring forward measures productive of 
the most favourable consequences to his Majesty's 
interests. 

" With such flattering prospects in view, at a 
moment that through the Divine assistance his 
Majesty's naval superiority has been gloriously 
asserted and regained ; when the most brilliant 
advantages have been obtained by his victorious 
arms in the East ; when instead of any symptoms 
of real debility, the natural commerce, resources and 
spirit seem to be rising far beyond those of our com- 
bined enemies, we joyfully concluded that the Inde- 
pendency of those Provinces would still have been 
considered inadmissible because injurious to the 
safety and incompatible with the glory and dignity 
of the whole British Empire. The hour of victory 
and success may perhaps be the proper hour to treat 
of peace, but not, we humbly conceive, to dismember 
an Empire. 

" We presume not, however, to arraign the wis- 
dom of his Majesty's Councils, nor to judge of the 
great political necessity which may have existed to 
justify this measure to the virtue, wisdom and pru- 
dence of his Majesty, of his Parliament, and of the 
nation at large ; we must submit this great and 
weighty question. 

" But should the great event of the independency 
of the Thirteen Colonies be determined and we 
thereby have to encounter the most inexpressible 



482 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

misfortune of being forever cast out of his Majesty's 
protection and government, we have only then to 
entreat your Excellencies' interposition with his 
Majesty, by every consideration of humanity to 
secure if possible, beyond the mere form of treaty, 
our persons and properties, that such as think they 
cannot safely remain here may be enabled to seek 
refuge elsewhere. 

" These are the sentiments, may it please your 
Excellencies, which in the fulness of our hearts we 
feel ourselves constrained to express in this alarming 
moment, influenced, however, by a hope that it may 
not yet be too late. We most earnestly request of 
your Excellencies that you will be pleased to repre- 
sent to our gracious Sovereign, accompanied with 
our warmest and most affectionate assurances of 
duty and loyalty, our present distressed situation, 
the confidence we have in his royal and benevolent 
attention and in the justice of the British nation to 
save us from that ruin and despair which must 
otherwise fall upon our devoted heads. 

" As witnesses to our distress and generously 
sympathising with us in our misfortunes, we cannot 
fail to have advocates in your Excellencies to the 
throne of our beloved Sovereign, the most zealous 
and able. Firmly persuaded of this we shall in the 
mean time by a manly and steadfast conduct and 
loyalty endeavour to support his Majesty's interests 
within these lines, preserving your Excellencies 
opinion and patiently wait the event. 

"Signed by the Committee. 

"New York, August 10, 1782." 



CA RLE TON ' S EFFOR TS TO AID LO YA LIS TS. 483 

Sir Guy Carleton ' was unquestionably the most 
sincere friend of the LoyaHsts, but his ingenuous 
nature was no match for the double-dealing with 
which he had to contend, and he was not seldom 
imposed upon by his astute legal adviser, that Wil- 
liam Smith of whom "■ McFingal " had already said, 

" Smith's weather-cock with forlorn veers 
Could hardly tell which way to turn." 

Judge Jones complains bitterly that, in the time 
between the reception of the Treaty and the Evacua- 
tion, Sir Guy did not use his power to compel the 
payment of debts to the men attainted by the Act 
of October 22, 1779. He appointed a committee to 
examine their claims, but in a session of seven 
months it did nothing. It had indeed no power 
beyond the Courts of Police, or over debts incurred 
before May i, 1776, the payment of which his 
petitioners had begged the General to enforce. The 
failure therein weighed heavily on rich and poor, 
reducing many gentlemen from afifiuence to poverty, 
and those of more modest means to absolute want. 

The Evacuation of New York had been much de- 
layed by Sir Guy's persistent efforts to make suita- 
ble provision for the impoverished Loyalists who 
crowded to the city. He had addressed both the 
Congress and the New York Legislature, and had 
written in their behalf to Governor Clinton, and he 
had written in vain. 

Nor was England more active in the adjustment 

* " So honest, so good, so just, so kind a man, and one so attached 
to this unhappy land." — Jones's Hist. New York, vol, ii., p. 124. 



484 EARLY LOXG ISLAND. 

of claims and in reparation to her injured sons. The 
Compensation Act of July, 1783, was " to inquire 
into the circumstances and former fortunes of such 
persons as are reduced to distress by the late un- 
happy dissentions in America," and gave no author- 
ity for action. It limited the time of receiving the 
claims to March 25, 1784. The time was extended 
by three later acts, but the business was not com- 
pleted until the spring of 1790.' The matter was 
complicated by the sensitiveness of the claimants 
who would not appear as suppliants for alms, and 
further retarded by the requirement of vouchers 
and inventories, difficult and often impossible to 
obtain. The whole number of claimants was three 
thousand two hundred and twenty-five. Of these, 
nearly one thousand claims were refused or with- 
drawn. Over ten millions pounds were paid, but 
the average amount was less than one-third the 
claim." Those compensated were not the tenth of 
those who had been impoverished, and had no one 
to present their claims. 

There was much feeling among the Loyalists who 
were allotted lands in Nova Scotia over the unequal 
granting of the same. In July, 1783, Abijah Willard ' 
and fifty-four others, petitioned Sir Guy for the same 
amount of land as was given to field officers of the 

' In March, 1821, Parliament debated the question of paying with 
interest the unsatisfied claims. 

* See I.ecky's Hist, of Englanii in Eightcatth CVrifurv, vol. iv., p. 
268. Winsor's Critical Hist. Americo, vol. vii., p. 211. 

* Abijah Willard was from Lancaster, Massachusetts, and in 1776 
went to Halifax with General Gage," but was on Long Island during 
the war. 



PROTESTS AGAINST " THE FIFTY-FIVE." 485 

army, their position being as high and their sacri- 
fices greater. This woiiUl assign to each one some 
five thousand acres of land. Tlieir appeal was fol- 
lowed by this counter-petition ' : 

" 'i\) his I'^xcellency 
Sir (iiiy Car let on 
Knight of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, 
General & Commander-in-chief &c. The MllMO- 
RIAL of the Subscribers luunbly sheweth, 

"That your Memorialists having been deprived of 
very valuable landed estates antl considerable per- 
.sonal property without the lines, and being also 
obliged to abandon their po.ssessions in this city on 
account of their loyalty to their Sovereign, and 
attachment to the Hritish Constitution and seeing 
no prospect of their being reinstated, had determined 
to remove with their families and settle in his Ma- 
jesty's Province of Nova Scotia on terms which 
they understood were held out equally to all his 
Majesty's persecuted subjects." Here follows their 
protest against The Fifty-five and an entreaty for 
delay in locating lands, that they may take po.sses- 
sion of that allotted them, August 15, 1783. 

Carleton's reply was that he believed no person 
would receive more than a thousand acres, and that 
the power of granting patents rested exclusively 
with Governor Parr of Nova Scotia, " who was 
extremely solicitous to do justice to all." 

Another memorial, recently found in the Archives 
of Nova Scotia," and signed by six hundred and 

' Kemcinbrancer, vol. xvii., p. 59. 

'See New York Genealogical and Biographical Record^ vol. xxi., 
p. 186. 



486 EARL Y LONG ISLAND. 

forty-two persons, among whom are many of Long 
Island name, further remonstrates with Carleton 
against The Fifty-five, and ends by saying: 

" Your memorialists can not but regard the Grants 
in Question if carried into effect, as amounting 
nearly to a total exclusion of themselves & Familys 
who if they become Settlers must either content 
themselves with barren and remote Lands, or sub- 
mit to be tenants to those most of whom they con- 
sider as their superiors in nothing but deeper Art 
and keener Policy." 

The Loyalists were widely scattered now. Those 
who had been in London during the war had lived 
in comparative poverty, and received but slight con- 
sideration. As Governor Hutchinson — whose His- 
tory Ellis calls " that marvel of temperate recital 
under the pressure of natural resentment " — simply 
remarks : " We Americans are plenty here and very 
cheap. Some of us at our first coming are apt to 
think ourselves of importance but other people do 
not think so, and few if any of us are much con- 
sulted or enquired after." Others, less philosophical 
under neglect and ingratitude, beset the Court in 
the vain hope of winning better terms for their fel- 
lows. But the fulfilment of the repeated promises of 
the British officials, confirmed as they were by the 
King and Ministry, had depended on the speedy 
conclusion of the war, and their reimbursement was 
intended to be at the expense of the defeated rebels. 

Their treatment throws a shadow of cruel irony 
upon Benjamin West's famous painting of the 
Reception of the Loyalists by Great Britain, wherein 



AMERICAN FEELING. 487 

Religion and Justice support the mantle of Britan- 
nia, who extends her arm and shield to a group of 
Loyalists led by Sir William Pepperell and William 
Franklin, a varied group of men, women, and chil- 
dren, priests in sacerdotal robes, lawyers in gowns 
and wigs, broad-brimmed Quakers, an Indian chief, 
negro slaves. 

The prevalent sentiment in the United States was 
expressed in the newspapers of the day, as for ex- 
ample in the Massachusetts Chronicle of May — , 
1783 : " As Hannibal swore never to be at peace 
with the Romans, so let every Whig swear by his 
abhorrence of slavery, by liberty and religion, by the 
shades of departed friends who have fallen in battle, 
never to be at peace with those fiends, the refugees, 
whose thefts, murders and treasons have filled the 
cup of woe." 

Even moderate men held the Loyalists as " more 
malignant and mischievous enemies of the coun- 
try than its foreign invaders," and even now more 
to be dreaded than any outside foe. When such 
feeling was to be withstood, the only safety was in 
the speedy removal of the doomed men, and the 
arrangements for the embarkation of the Loyalists 
to the various British Provinces, went on as rapidly 
as was possible. 




XX. 



EXPATRIATION — A NEW HOME. 



THE emigration of the Loyalists from New York 
began in September, 1782, when a party of 
three hundred sailed for Annapolis Royal.' 
These were a few men from New York and Long 
Island, with many who had gone to the city early in 
the war for protection within British lines, or later, 
for conveyance to some other English colony. New 
York was the chief point of departure, and to arrange 
for their removal and settlement in Nova Scotia, a 
Board of seven had been appointed. Of these, all 
were from New England ' but the Reverend Samuel 
Seabury, son of the rector of Saint George's, Hemp- 
stead, and later, first Bishop of Connecticut, and 
James Peters, son of Valentine Hewlett Peters, and 
a leader among The Fifty-five. Ofificial records at 

' Carleton wrote to Governor Hammond of Nova Scotia, that six 
hundred more then awaited transportation. 

* There were from Massachusetts, Lieut. -Colonel Benjamin Thomp- 
son (Count Rumford), Lieut. -Colonel Edward Winslow, who had left 
Boston with General Gage, and Major Joshua Upham, of Brookfield ; 
from Connecticut were the Reverend John Sayre, rector of Trinity 
Church, Fairtield, and Amos Botsford, of Newtown. 

488 



PROVISION FOR THE EXILES. 489 

Halifax show that fully thirty-five thousand Loyal- 
ists went to Nova Scotia, and, except in a few indi- 
vidual cases, that bleak country was the destination 
of all the Long Island exiles. 

England had meant to be generous in her pro- 
vision for those cast upon her bounty. From three 
hundred to six hundred acres of land were assigned 
to every family ; a full supply of food for the first 
year ; two-thirds for the second, and one-third for 
the third year. Warm clothing, medicines, ammu- 
nition, seeds, farming implements, building materials 
and tools, millstones, and other requirements for 
grist-mills and saw-mills were granted and given out 
with tolerable fairness, but there were many delays, 
much poor material, and errors in distribution which 
worked great individual suffering, enhanced by the 
unexpected seventy of the climate.' 

In every township two thousand acres were re- 
served for the maintenance of a clergyman, and one 
thousand acres for the support of a school. 

Port Rose way," just east of the southern point of 
Nova Scotia, had been first chosen as their destina- 
tion by the New York Loyalists, and in the fall of 

' " Port Roseway, Jan. 5th, 1784. 

" All our gallant promises are vanished in smoke. We were taught 
to believe this place was not barren and foggy as had been represented, 
but we find it ten times worse. 

"We have nothing but his Majesty's rotten pork and unbaked 
flour to subsist on. ' But can not you bake it yourself, seeing it is so 
wooden a country?' Only come here yourselves and you will soon 
learn the reason. It is the most inhospitable clime that ever mortal 
sat foot on." 

^ The name is a corruption, through various intermediate forms, of 
the French, Port Razoir. 



490 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

1782 arrangements were making for their removal 
thither. A Board was formed of which Beverley 
Robinson was President. Four hundred and seventy- 
one heads of families were divided into sixteen com- 
panies, each having a captain and two lieutenants to 
preserve order, to distribute provisions, and to ap- 
portion lands. Each company was given a transport- 
ship for its conveyance, cannon, and ammunition. 
The fleet, composed of eighteen square-rigged ves- 
sels, several sloops and schooners, and protected by 
two men-of-war, left New York April 27, 1783. 

Favouring winds brought them in seven days to 
the snow-wrapped coast on which they were to find 
a home. They were met at Port Roseway by sur- 
veyors from Halifax. Examining the country and 
sounding the harbour, they chose the site of their 
town at its head. Five parallel streets, sixty feet in 
width, were laid out, crossed by others, each square 
making sixteen lots, sixty feet front by one hundred 
and twenty deep. A Common was cleared, tem- 
porary huts of bark and sods thrown up, the hill 
levelled, its hollows filled, and, early in July, the 
town was separated into the North and the South 
Divisions, the streets were named, the lots num- 
bered, and each settler given a farm of fifty acres, 
besides a town and water-lot. The work of clearing 
and building went on rapidly, and the semblance of 
prosperity shone upon the settlement. Early in 
August it was visited by Governor Parr, who con- 
ferred upon the town the name of Shelburne. We 
are told by Haliburton that he was received by a 
procession which marched through King Street, 



CONDITIONS ^OF LIFE IN SHELBURNE. 49 1 

after which " A Collation " was served. One won- 
ders what might have been the menu. 

In October another fleet arrived from New York, 
contrary to the stipulations of the Associates, bring- 
ing five thousand more Refugees and doubling the 
population of Shelburne. The Common was given 
up to the new-comers, set off in two Divisions, Parr's 
and Patterson's, and the winter was an anxious 
struggle for subsistence. The Association which 
planned the settlement of Shelburne had based 
their expectations of prosperity upon its beautiful 
harbour and stately forests, where every tree was 
fit for 

"Mast 
" Of some great ammiral." 

Commerce and ship-building were encouraged by 
special legislation. Whale-fishery was attempted 
in 1784, but the ambitious venture proved a failure. 
The West India trade was monopolised by New- 
foundland and New England, and licenses could not 
be easily obtained for the carrying-trade between 
the United States and Newfoundland. They were 
too far from the mouth of the harbour to make the 
fisheries profitable, while the town was isolated from 
the other settlements of the Province and surrounded 
by the pathless woods. The settlers were, by all the 
habits of their previous life, unfitted for pioneers. 
As soon as it was possible to escape from this forest 
prison they removed to other parts of the Province 
— to New Brunswick, or some even returned to the 
United States. In twenty-five years Shelburne was 



492 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

a deserted town, whose vacant houses looked down 
on silent, grass-grown streets. 

Many hundred faniihes of l.oyah'sts were mean- 
while making their way by Lake Champlain and the 
Sorel, or through the forests of Northern New York, 
over weary portages between the water-ways of the 
Mohawk and the Oswego, to ft)unil settlements at 
Kingston on the l^ay of Ouintc, at York, and else- 
where on the nortlu'in shores of l'2rie and Ontario. 
To them, by an Oreier in Council in 17S9 wa- given 
the name of Uniteil Empire Loyalists applied to all 
who had remained with or joined the royal standard 
before the Treaty of 1783, and from them has been 
built up the prosperous province of Ontario. 

Hut the migration which nmst affected Long 
Island, which was re. ill}' the exodus of Queens, was 
"The Spring Fleet" of 1783. Plutarch has said 
" Exile was a blessing the Muses bestowed upon 
their favourites." lUit not alone by this mark of 
fa\our did the expatriated stand high ; professional 
men and men of scholarly leisure, tenderly reared 
women anil little chiklren. Icfl their old homes of 
comfort and refinement for the hardships of pioneer 
life in tlie unbroken wilderness of a countix' whose 
climale. then unmitigated by civilisation, was de- 
scribed in a contemporar)' letter as " nine months 
winter, and three months cold weather." 

The Fleet ' conveyed more than three thousand 

' It consisted of twenty s(iu;uc-rigi;ed ships: 

riu ("<;w<*/ Tluitnfs I'.nitnctt Lord To7i'HsIifnii 

L'ttioit S/>ti>ii;' Jl't/Ziiim -'^"y (jfor^'e 

Aurora Attn C\frns Fcivourite 

Hofie S/>fit<Y BritiitH BridgC7vater 

Otter Sail S'vnYi'^n Comtuctrc. 



THE HARBOUR- OF SAINT JOHN. 493 

persons to tlu; mouth of tlic River Saint John.' 
There were then on the sliores of that beautiful har- 
bour, visited by De Monts and Champhiin in 1604, 
l)ut the ruins of 1^'ort de la Tour, rebuilt by the 
lCnL;lish as I<'ort P'rederick, antl burned by rebels 
from Machias, and, near the Carleton Ferry, the half- 
dozen huts of a few men engaged in fishing and 
lime-burning.' The site of the future city was 
broken ground descending from the heights of Fort 
Howe to the deep ravine which ran through the 
present course of King Street. There were bald 
knobs of granite, but scantily fringed with cedar, 
rising above the heavy spruce forest," fdled in with 
tangled undergrowth of moose-wood and hobble- 
bush. 

On Sunday, May 1 8th, passing Partridge and Navy 
Islands, and the shore of Carleton on the left, the 
J^leet anchored in the upper cove, — what is now 
Market Slip at the foot of Market Square. That 
spot is the Plymouth Rock of New Brunswick, for 

' See New York Gazctif, March 2(), 1783, for letters of Amos Bots- 
ford, writli'ii from Annapolis Uoyal, January T.illi, in which he 
(lescril)cs lands in tlic Annapolis ]5asin, and on llic Saint John 
River, Kivin}; ihc preference to the latter in climate, productions, 
and adaptabdity to the exiles. 

'■^ It was called Simond's Station. In I7C)2, a party of Iwonly men 
from Newhuryporl came to exploi-e tlu; River Saint John. The 
leaders, James Simonds, James While, and h'rancis Peabody, remained 
here, while the others went up the river to Si. Anne's i'oint (Fred- 
ericton), and, attracted by the fertile inlervales, sellled at Maiij^i^r's 
Island, naming their towiisiM|) Maiif^erville. 

""The Whole City was llieii in a [uifcct State of Wilderness. 
The wood was dreailfully thick and jjreatly encundjcrcd with wind- 
falls." — Early Historv of New Jiruus'ivick, Moses II. I'erlcy. 



494 EARL Y LONG ISLAND. 

there landed her founders, men eminent through 
the three generations of their descendants. The 
spring was unusually late ; snow was still on the 
ground and the slow verdure of the North had not 
yet come. Tents for the women and children were 
hastily made of ship-sails, and the building of log 
cabins was at once begun. 

In June, came " the Second Spring Fleet " of 
fourteen vessels, bringing about two thousand immi- 
grants. Two of the ships, the Union and the Two 
Sisters, had sailed direct from Huntington Harbour, 
The Fall Fleet arrived October 4th with twelve 
hundred more settlers. Various transports with 
troops and stores continued to arrive until Decem- 
ber. The soldiers were tented along the Lower 
Cove and in the present Barrack Square. The 
winter passed drearily to those who struggled against 
its rigour with but slight shelter and scant suste- 
nance. Old diaries and letters in fast-fading charac- 
ters still attest the sufferings and endurance of the 
first-comers, and the traditions of these years linger 
among the old families of New Brunswick as a pre- 
cious legacy of sorrow, a sacred inspiration for the 
present. 

Parrtown and Carleton were begun on opposite 
sides of the river, and by winter there were at least 
five thousand people there.' On May 18, 1785, the 

' An officer on the ship Due du Chatres wrote October 19, 1783. 
" The great emigration of Loyalists from New York to this Province 
is almost incredible : they have made many new settlements in the 
Bay of Funday and considerable augmented those of Annapolis 
Royal & St. John's River : they are.so numerous at the last mentioned 
place as to build two new towns, Carleton and Parrtown." 



FOUNDATION STONE OF THE DOMINION. 495 

settlement was incorporated under royal charter as 
the City of Saint John. Its first mayor was Colonel 
Gabriel Ludlow of Queens County, who held the 
office until his resignation in 1795. Meanwhile, the 
County of Sunbury, Nova Scotia, which included 
the country from Chignecto Bay to the St. Croix, 
on August J 6, 1784, had been established as the 
Province of New Brunswick, with Colonel Thomas 
Carleton, brother of Sir Guy, as General and Com- 
mander-in-chief of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, 
and Canada. 

Saint John was a distributing point whence the 
exiles went throughout the Province and to other 
parts of British America. The river, its Micmac 
name, Ouygoudy, meaning highway, was the road 
by which they penetrated to the upper forests. 
Some reaching the St. Lawrence ascended its course 
and, settling along the Great Lakes, joined those who 
came directly from New York, as United Empire 
Loyalists, and laid the foundations of the most 
prosperous province of the Dominion of Canada.' 
It was through them that a representative govern- 
ment was obtained, and by them that the Dominion 
was really created, by enterprise and ability which a 
different course than the one pursued might easily 
have retained within the United States. Goldwin 
Smith well sums up the matter: 

" Had the Americans been as wise and merciful 
after their first as they were after their second civil 

'An immigration justly valued by the English. "It may be 
safely said no portion of the British possessions ever received so 
noble an acquisition." — Viscount Bury, Exodtis of the Western 
Natiotts, vol. ii., p. 334. 



496 EARL V LONG ISLAND. 

war, and closed the strife as all civil strife ought to 
be closed — with an amnesty, British Canada would 
never have come into existence. It was founded by 
the Loyalists driven by revolutionary violence from 
their homes. These men were deeply wronged and 
might well cherish and hand down to their sons the 
memory of the wrong. They had done nothing as 
a body to put themselves out of the pale of mercy. 
They had fought, as every citizen is entitled and 
presumptively bound to fight, for the government 
under which they were born, to which they owed 
allegiance, and which as they fought gave them the 
substantial benefits of freedom. They had fought 
for a connection which though false — at all events 
since the Colony had grown able to shift for itself, 
was still prized by the Colonies generally, as might 
have been shown out of the mouths of all the several 
leaders including Samuel Adams the principal 
fomentor of the quarrel. . . . The intelligence 
and property of the Colonies, the bulk of it at least, 
had been on the loyal side, . . . nor was it pos- 
sible to fix a point at which the normal rule of civil 
duty was severed and fidelity to the Crown became 
treason to the Commonwealth." ' 

From this impossibility came that depopulation 
of Long Island which has influenced her subsequent 
history, and which has carried the sons of her Loy- 
alists wherever the Cross of Saint George greets the 
rising sun. By the Saint John and the Gaspereaux, 
in the shadow of the Selkirks, or on the shores of 

• See Canada and the Canadian Question, p. 98. 



CAREER OF THE LOYALIST DESCENDANTS. 497 

Puget, steadfast at Kars, or leading the forlorn hope 
in the death-assault of an African fort, their blood 
is true to the traditions of their fathers on the Hemp- 
stead Plains, and Long Island well may honour her 
expatriated children. 




APPENDIX I. 

(For page 351.) 
THE HEMPSTEAD RESOLUTIONS. 

These Resolutions, said to have been written in part by Daniel 
Kissam, were offered for publication in the Royal Gazette, in the 
following note from their principal author : 

" Mr. Rivington : 

"You are requested to publish the following resolutions unani- 
mously adopted at the most numerous Town Meeting which has 
been held in many years. 

" HuLET Peters, T. C." 

The Resolutions were published April 6th. In a later number of 
the paper they are commented on by " A Freeholder of Hempstead," 
one of those who " think the Union of the Colonies in a general and 
spirited plan of opposition absolutely necessary to the preservation 
of our rights." 

The Resolutions are as follows ' : 

" Hempstead, April 4, 1775. 

" At this critical time of public danger and distraction, when it is 
the duty of every honest man and friend to his country, to declare 
his sentiments openly and to use every endeavour to ward off the 

' American Archives, series iv., vol. ii., p. 273. 
• 499 



500 EARL y LOXG ISLAND. 

impending calamities which threaten this once happy and peaceful 
land : 

" We, the Freeholders and Inhabitants of Hempstead, being law- 
fully assembled on the first Tuesday of April, 1775, have voluntarily 
entered into the following conclusions : 

" 1st. That as we have already borne true and faithful allegiance 
to his Majesty King George the Third, our Gracious and lawful sov- 
ereign, so we are firmly resolved to continue in the same line of duty 
to him and his lawful successors. 

" 2J. That we esteem our civil and religious liberties above any 
other blessings and those only can be secured to us by our present 
constitution ; we shall inviolably adhere to it, since deviating from 
it, and intro<.iucing innovations would have a direct tendency to 
subvert it. from which the most ruinous consequences might justly be 
appreliended. 

" ,v</. That it is our ardent desire to have the present unnatural 
contest between the Parent State and her Colonies amicably and 
speedily accommodated on principles of constitutional liberty, and 
that the union of these Colonies with the Parent-state may subsist 
until Time shall be no more. 

" 4ly. That as the worthy members of our General Assembly, who 
are our only legal and constitutional representatives, have petitioned 
his most gmcious Majesty, have sent a Memorial to the House of 
Lords and a Petition to the House of Commons, we are determined 
to wait patiently for the issue of those measures, and to avoid every- 
thing that might frustrate those laudable endeavours. 

" j/r. That as choosing Deputies to form a Provincial Congress or 
Convention, must have this tendency, be highly disrespectful to our 
legal representatives and also be attended in all probability with the 
most pernicious effects in other instances, as is now actually the case 
in some Provinces— such as shutting up Courts of Justice, levying 
money on the subjects to enlist men for the purpose of fighting 
against our sovereign, diffusing a spirit of sedition among the people, 
destroj-ing tlie authority of constitutional assemblies and otherwise 
introducing many heavy and oppressive grievances — we therefore are 
determined not to choose any Deputies, nor to consent to it but do 
solemnly bear our testimony against it. 

" ^r. We are utterly averse to all mobs, riots and illegal proceed- 
ings by which the lives, peace and pniperty of our fellow subjects 
.ire endangered, and that we. to the utmost of our power, will support 



APPENDIX I. 



501 



our legal magistrates in suppressing all riots and preserving the 
peace of our liege sovereign, 

" HuLET Peters, 

" Clerk." 

Could " honest men " and good citizens do less than here resolved ? 
Yet these Resolutions branded all concerned therewith as "Tories," 
the synonym of traitor. 







Cip ^;a ii^' 



>*« ^..' 







APPENDIX II. 



(For page 353.^ 
ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION. 

The "Articles of Association adopted by the Freeholder and 
Inhabitants of the City and Count}- of New York, on Saturday, the 
29th of April, and transmitted for signing to all the Counties in the 
ProNnnce," were draw-n up by James Duane, John Jay, and Peter 
Van Schaack. The I-ong Island Counties settled upon their own 
fonns of association, although the documents were essentially the 
same. 

In Suffolk County the various Committees of Correspondence met 
in the " County Hall" to choose Deputies ; Articles of Association 
were drawn up and subscribed, June S, 1775 : 

"Persuaded that the Salvation and Rights and Liberties of 
America Depend under God, in the firm union of its Inhabitants in 
the vigourous Prosecution of the measures necessary- for its safety 
and convinced of the necessity of preventing the Annarchy and Con- 
fusion which attend a Dissolution of the powers of Government, 

" \Ye the Freeholders and inhabitants within the Bounds of the 
4th Militia Company of Brookhaven, being greatly alarmed at the 
avowed Design of the Ministry to raise a Revenue in America, and 
Shocked by the Bloody Scene now acting in the Massachusetts Bay, 
DO in the most solemn manner resolve never to become Slaves : And 
do associate imder .ill the ties of Religion, Honour and Love to our 
Country, to adopt and Endeavour to carrj- into Execution whatever 
measures may be recommended by the Continental Congress, or re- 
solved upon by our Provincial Convention for the purpose of pre- 
serving our Constitution and opposing the Execution of the several 
arbitrary and oppressive Acts of tl\e British Parliament until a recon- 

50a 



APPENDIX II. 503 

ciliation between Great Britain and America on Constitutional Prin- 
ciples (which we most ardently desire) can be obtained, and that we 
will in all things follow the advice of our General Committee respect- 
ing the purpose aforesaid, the preservation of peace and good order 
and the safety of Individuals and private property." 

To this are signed one hundred and twenty names,' twenty- 
six of which are marked with a cross, their owners desiring 
" more time for consideration, or who do dissent." Easthampton 
notes that the Articles are " signed by every male capable of bearing 
arms." In the Precinct of Islip it is said that "Some of us are of 
the people called Quakers and mean to act no farther than is con- 
sistant with our Religious Principals." No Quakers signed the 
Articles. 

In Brooklyn, the people of Kings County express themselves on 
May 20th, thus prefacing their Articles of Association : 

" Having considered the expediency of concurring with the free- 
holders and freemen of the City and County of New York and the 
other Counties, Townships and Precincts of this Province, for hold- 
ing, continuing and maintaining a Provincial Congress of Deputies 
chosen out of the whole population, to advise, consult, watch over, 
protect and defend at this very alarming crisis all our civil and reli- 
gious rights, liberties and privileges according to their collective 
prudence. 

" After duly weighing and considering the unjust plunder and in- 
human carnage of our brethren in the J\Iassac/iiisctts who with the 
other New-England colonies are now deemed by the Mother Coun- 
try to be in a state of actual rebellion, by which Declaration England 
has put it beyond their own power to treat with A'cw-England, or 
to propose or receive any terms of reconciliation until those Colonies 
shall submit or become a conquered country the first effort to effect 
which was by military and naval force ; the next attempt is to bring 
a famine (a dreadful engine of war) amongst them, by depriving 
them of both their natural and acquired rights of fishing. . . 
Further contemplating the very unhappy act by which the power at 
home by oppressive measures has driven all the other Protestant 
Provinces, we have all evils in their power to fear, as they have al- 
ready declared all the Provinces, aiders and abettors of Rebellion. 

" Leffert Lefferts, 

" Clerk." 

' See Historical MS S. of the Revolution, vol i., pp. 49-64. 



504 EARL Y LONG ISLAND. 

The Articles of Association adopted in Queens County were as 
follows : 

" We the subscribers do most solemnly declare that the claims of 
the British Parliament to bring at their discretion the People of the 
United States of America in all cases whatsoever, are in our opinion 
absurd, unjust and tyrannical and that the hostile attempts of their 
Fleets and Armies to enforce submission to these wicked and ridicu- 
lous claims ought to be resisted by Americans. And therefore, we do 
engage and associate under all the ties which we respectively hold 
sacred, to defend by arms these United Colonies against the seid hostile 
attempts, agreeable to such Laws or Regulations as our Representa- 
tives the Congresses, or future General Assemblies of this Colony 
have, or, shall for this Purpose make and establish."* 

To this manifesto, there are from all the county, but seven- 
teen names. The form used in Suffolk County was subscribed in 
Janu.try, 1776, by thirty freeholders of the seceded Cow Neck, and 
Great Neck, who had "lately belonged to the company of Captain 
Stephen Thorne." But the Provincial Congress was not satisfied 
with this reception of its Form of Association, and in its Journals we 
find the following : 

" Die Mercurii, 9 ho. A.M. 
"June 28, 1775. 

" The order for taking into consideration the state of Queen's 
County being read, the Congress took into consideration the state of 
Queen's County ; and it appearing that a great no. of the inhabitants 
of the said County are not disposed to a representation at this Board 
and have dissented therefrom 

" Resolved, That inasmuch as the people of this Colony have ap- 
pointed us to watch over their preservation and defence and delegated 
unto us such power necessary for the purpose, such dissent ought not 
to be of any avail, but that the said County as well as every other 
part of this Colony must necessarily be bound by the determination 
of this Congress." 

^Hist(mcal MSS. of the Revolution, vol. i., p. 209. 



APPENDIX 111. 

(For page 390.) 

*• DECLARATION. 

"^v Richard, Viscount Howe of the Kingdom of Ireland and 
William Howe, Esq. General of his Majesty's Forces in America, 
the King's Commissioners for restoring peace to his Majesty's Colo- 
nies and Plantations in N'orth-America, &'c. <Sr'f. 



" DECLARATION 

" Whereas hy an Act passed in the last session of Parliament to 
prohibit all trade and intercourse with the colonies of Xeiv-Hamjt<shire, 
Massachusetts-Bay, Rhode-Island, Connecticut, Xe7v- York, Xew- 
jfersey, Pennsylvania, the three lower counties on the Dela~i<are, 
Maryland, Virginia, North-Carolina, South-Carolina and Georgia, 
and for other purposes therein mentioned, it is enacted, It shall 
and may he lawful to and for any person or persons appointed and 
authori^ed to grant a pardon or pardons to any number or description 
of persons by proclamation in his Majesty's name, to declare any 
Provinces, Colonies, Plantations or Counties, or any County Town, 
Port, District or place in any Colony or Province to be at the peace 
of his Majesty, and that from or after issuing such proclamation, in 
any of the aforesaid Colonies or Provinces, or if his Majesty should 
be graciously pleased to signify the same by his Royal Proclamation, 
then, from and after the issuing such Proclamation, tlie said Act with 
reference to such Colonies shall cease, determine and be utterly 
void. 

" And whereas the King desirous to deliver all his subjects from 

. 505 



506 EARLY LOXG ISLAND. 

the calamities of war and other oppressions which ihev now undeigo, 
and to restore the said Colonies to his protection and peace as soon 
as the constituted authority therein mar be replaced, hath been gra- 
ciously pleased by letters patent under the Great Seal, dated the 6 
day of May in the sixteenth year of his Majesty's reign, to appoint 
RickiarJ t'iscfimt Mnnf and irilHajm /^<ranr, £if . and each of us 
jointly and severally to be his Majesty's Conunission and Commission- 
ers lor granting his free and general parvlon to all those who in the 
tumult and disorvler of the times, may ha^■e deviated from their hrst 
allegiance, and who are willing by a speedy return to their duty, to 
reap the benefits of the royal fsA-our, and also for declaring in his 
Majesty's name, any Colony, Province or County, or any County 
Town, port, district or place to be at the peace of his Majesty. 

" We do therefore declare that due consideration shall be had to 
the meritorious services of all persons who shall aid and assist in re- 
storing the publick tranquillity in the said Colomies, or in any part, 
or parts thereof ; that pardons shall be granted, dutiful representa- 
tions received and gi\-en ex^ery suitable encouragement for promoting 
sudi measures as shall be condudvte to the establishment of legal 
Government and peace, in puisuance <rf his Majesty's most gracious 
{Muposes aforesaid. 

•* Given at Staten-Island the 14th day of July, 1776. 

'•Howe 

" \Vm. Howe," » 

^AauriMM ArrUves, series v., vol. i,, p. 1466. 




^v^ 



APPENDIX IV 



(For page 43a. ) 



'TETITIOX AND REPRESENTATION OF QUEEN'S CO. 

IN N. Y. 



" To the Right Honourable RICHARD, LORD VISCOUNT 
HOWE of the Kitsi^dcn of Irchnd, and to his Excellency, the 
Honourable WILLIAM HOWE, Esquire, General of His 
Majesty s Cohnies in A'artA America : 

" The humble Representation and petition of the Freeholders and 
Inhabitants of Queen's County on the Island of Nassau in the Pro- 
vince of New York : 

" Your Excellencies having by your Declaration of July last opened 
to us the pleasing prospect of returning peace and security long ban- 
ished by the many calamities surrounding us, we entertained the most 
sanguine expectations that the Colonies would at length have sub- 
mitted to their duty and acknowledged the constitutional authority 
they have so wantonly opposed. 

" When we compare the dismal situation of the country suffering 
under all the evils attending the most convulsive state, with the mild 
and happy government it had before experienced, we saw no ground 
for hesitation ; from happiness we have fallen into misery ; from 
freedom to oppression ; Me severely felt the change and lamented our 
condition. Unfortunately for us these hopes were blasted by the in- 
fatuated conduct of the Congress : Your Excellencies, nevertheless 
having been pleased by a subsequent Declaration again to hold up the 
most benevolent offers and to repeat his Majesty's most gracious in- 
tentions toward the obedient. 

. 507 



5o8 



EARLY LONG ISLAND. 



" Permit us his Majesty's loyal and well-affected subjects, the Free- 
holders and Inhabitants of Queen's County, to humbly represent to 
your Excellencies that we bear true allegiance to his Majesty King 
George the Third, and are sincerely attached to his sacred person, crown 
and dignity ; that we consider the union of these Colonies with the 
parent state essential to their well-being, and our earnest desire is 
that the constitutional authority of Great Britain over them may be 
preserved to the latest ages. 

" And we humbly pray that your Excellencies would be pleased to 
declare this County at the peace of his Majesty and thereby enable us 
to receive the benefits flowing from his most gracious protection. 

" Queen's County 2ist October 1776, 



John Morrell 
Thos. Hallet 
Chas. Willet 
Geo. Nostrand 
Enoch Martin 
Jonathan Rowland 
John Embree 
Benj. Arisson 
Abraham Lawrence 
Hallet Wright 
Joseph Wright 
Philip Field 
John Fowler 
Thos. Blockley 
John Marston 
Oliver Thorne 
Wm. Lowere 
Wm. Arisson 
Gilbert Field 
Edward Van Wicklen 
Daniel Young 
Wm. Butler 
Jacob Weeks, Jun. 
Zebulon Wright 
Simon Waters 
Joseph Latham 
Sam'l Burr 



Joseph Hegeman 
Henry Dickeman 
March McEwen 
Darius Allen 
Israel Oakley 
Tho's Smith, Jr. 
Isaac Carpenter 
Richard Weeks 
Robt. Wilson 
Zebulon Doty 
Dan'l Hendrickson 
John Bennet 
Jeronimus Leisler 
Refine Weeks 
Ab'm Van Wyck 
Ben'j Cheshire 
James Voorhies 
Cornelius Suydam 
Charles Justus 
Gabriel Cock 
Solomon Wooden 
John Remsen 
Isaac Keen 
Nathan Skidmore 
Israel Seaman 
Joshua Tettil 
John Mcintosh 



AJPPENDIX IV. 



509 



John Hewlett 
Stephen Wood 
George Watts 
Isaac Denton 
Richard Green 
Joseph Bedell 
Jonah Valentine 
Christian Snediker 
Wm. Langdon 
Ja's Searing 
Wm. Pearsall 
Jos. Cadles 
Ja's Cornwell 
Ephraim Ludlow 
Cornel Smith 
Amos Smith 
Richard Mott 
Cornelius Bogart 
Tunis Covert 
Jacob Mott, Jun. 
John Sands 
Micajah Townsend 
Jesse Weeks 
Joseph Haviland, Jun. 
Wm. Reid 
Elbert Hoogland 
David Roe, Const. 
Joseph Griffin 
John Smith 
Samuel Smith 
Sam'l Fish 
Francis Marston 
Tho's Bennen 
Benj. F'arrington 
Thos. Woodward 
Leonard Lawrence 
Mathew Redet 
Baltus Van Kleeck 
Theophilus Wright 
Gilbert Coklen Willet 



Isaac Underbill 

Peter Underbill 

John Williams 

Abraham Snedeker 

Richard Jackson 

Tho's Jackson 

Geo. Bayley 

Nicholas Van Cott 

Abm. Allen 

Dan'l Allen 

Kendrick Hardenburgh 

Barrit Snediker 

John De Verdito (?) 

Garret Wortman 

Dan'l Van Nostrand, Jun. 

Richard Hewlett 

Benajah Bedel 

Francis Davenport 

Michael Demott 

Elias Burtis 

Edward Allison 

Cha's Cornwell 

Samuel Jackson 

John Le Grass 

Richard Gildersleeve 

Wm. Gulman 

John Hall 

Tho's Jackson 

Jacob Jackson 

Lorance Fish 

George Smith 

Jo's Birdsall 

Sam'l Carmen 

Jos. Thomycraft 

Timothy Townsend 

Jotham Townsend 

W. Townsend 

Ja's Craft 

Cha's Thorne 

Tho's Kipp 



X^ 



510 



EARL Y LONG ISLAND, 



John Weekes 
Jacobus Ricker 
Abm. Berrien 
Garrit Luysler 
Benj. Field 
John Lawrence 
Abraham Polhemus 
Nath'l Hunt 
Abraham Brinckerhoff 
John Leverich 
Remsen P. Remsen 
John Burroughs 
Jacob Palmer 
John Gorsline 
Rob't T. Collins 
John Parsall 
Jacob Bennet 
Abm. Devine 
Jores Brinckerhoff 
Peter Smith, Jun. 
Plat Smith 
Waters Lambertsen 
Nath'l Woodruff 
Dan'l Ludlam 
Simeon Lugrin 
Nath'l Higbee 
Nath'l Smith 
Richard Roads 
John Losee 
John Van Nostrand 
Peter Smith, Sen. 
John Remsen 
Tho's Wiggins 
Michael Flowers 
Sam'l Thon\e 
Edward Hicks 
Tho's Hicks 
Gilbert Cornell 
John Mitchell, Jun. 
Obadiah Cornwell 



Cornelius Cornwell 
Augustine Mitchell 
Sam'l Hutchings 
John Burtis 
John WooUey 
Wm. Milboume 
Geo. Rapalje 
Geo. Rapalje, Tun. 
Jas. Morell 
Abm. J. Rapalje 
Stephen Moore 
John Rapalje 
Bern's Rapalje 
Jesse Fish 
Dan'l Nostrandt 
Christopher Remsen 
Alexander ^[cMuller 
Richard Gardiner 
Wm. Steed 
Silas Lawrence 
Nicholas Wickoff 
Jacobus Collier 
Abraham Probasco 
Tho's Youngs 
Cha's Hicks 
Peter H. Waters 
Ezekiel Roe 
John Morrell 
Wm. Prince 
James Field 
Sam'l Thome 
Christopher Roberts 
Jacob Suydam 
Benj. Thome, Jun. 
Joseph Thome 
Sam'l Smith, Jun. 
Joseph Carpenter 
Joseph Cooper 
Thos. Cheshire 
Dan'l Weekes, Jun. 



APPEXDIX IV. 



511 



Francis Blackburn 
Robt. Allen 
Zophar Hawkins 
Jacob Smith 
Robt. Cohvell 
John Carpenter 
Corn's Hoogland 
John Remsen 
Abm. Weekes 
Nath'l Weekes 
Jacob Weekes 
Tunis Hoogland 
Anthony Van Nostrand 
Peter Leister 
Peter Leister, Jun. 
Wm Braambos 
Farnandus Suydam 
Jacob Dillingham 
Dan'l Dodges 
John Weekes 
W^. Cheshire 
Dan'l Latten 
John Carpenter 
Benj. Barker 
Wm. Fembe 
Noah Seaman 
Richard Jackson 
Tunis Covert 
James Pettit 
Oliver Willis 
George Weekes 
Stephen Hewlett 
Geo. Watts, Jun. 
Reuben Pine 
Sylvester Bedle 
Morris Simonson 
Tho's Hicks 
Sam'l Pettet 
Stephen Corn well, Jr. 
Timothy Clowes 



Ja's Smith 

Geo. Baldwin 

David Jackson 

Gilbert Van Wyck 

Sam'l Smith 

Freeman Please 

Isaac Covert 

Jordan Lawrence 

David Laton 

Ja's Pine 

Wm. Frost 

Benj. Latting, Jun. 

John Smith 

John Skidmore 

Dan'l Bailey 

P. Nostrand 

Wm. Smith 

Nath'l Smith 

Wm. Hendricksen 

Isaac Mills 

\\Tiitehead Skidmore 

J. D. Peyster 

Chas. Smith 

Wm. Valentine 

Thos. Ireland 

Gregory Rete 

Martin Schenck, Jun. 

Peter Monfort 

John Clemens 

Hen. Stocker 

John Woolley, Jun. 

Andries Hegemen 

Thos. Smith 

Dan'l Ireland 

Wm. Smith, Cov,' Neck 

John Cornwall 

Sam'l AUine 

John Toffe 

Benj. Smith 

Geo. Hallet 



512 



EAULV LONG ISLAXD. 



J»'s Lewis 
Simon Voris 
John Suydam 
Rem, Reiusen 
Wm. Lainb«ct9«t 
Thetxiorus Van Wyck 
Wrigjht Thornycrait 
Di\-id Valentine 
J(»>dan CcJes 
Mordecai Beedle 
John Henderson 
Stephen Lawrence, Jun. 
Nicholas Ludlam 
\V. I^Oi^kini, Jun, 
Anibrtse Fish 
Tho's La\rsion 
Jacob Beigen 
Lawrence Ntarstex 
Xoah Smith 
Nicholas Smith 
Daniel Whitehead 
Benj. Everett 
Douw Van Dine 
Israel Ditmars 
Garnet Ditmars 
Aury Ix^eram 
Douw l>itmari 
John Ditntars 
Jacob Renisen 
Nicholas Tvines 
Johannes H. l.ott 
Henry Hawkhurst 
Benj. Hicks 
Newbun- Darenport 
Joseph Kissan\ 
David Allen 
Tho"s Lewis 
John Carle 
Michael Ro^TS 
San\"l Titus 



John Rodman 
Jacob Suydam 
Peter Alburtis 
Benj. Field 
GeoT^ Hicks 
Oliver Waters 
Wm. Waters 
01i>"er Talman 
Wm. Talman 
John Searing 
Wm. Bums 
Hendrick Eldert 
Tho's Fowler 
Jacob Gritiin 
John Van Lien 
Robert Monell 
Caleb Valentine 
Nicholas Coe 
Wm. LawTrence, Jun. 
David Fowler 
Dan'l Clement 
Dan'l Hitchcock 
John Monfort 
Peppenell Bloodg^ood 
Caleb Lawrence 
John Thome 
Tho's Foster 
John Areson 
l>arby Doyel 
Issaichar Polock 
Benj, Thcffne 
V. Hicks 
John Talman 
Stephen Ijiwrence 
Somerset K^wrence 
Rob't Ijiwrence 
San\'l Wriirht 
Oliver Cornell 
Joseph BeesJey 
Henrv Lotrere 



APPEAWIX IV. 



513 



Nicholas Loudon 
Jacob Van ^Vicklen 
Fni. Conihanc 
David Charboync 
Wm. Watei-s 
Authonv Wriiiht 
A. Kcmrscn 
Joseph Cooper, Jun. 
Isaac Whipps 
Michael Weekes 
Sam'l Robbins 
Simeon Hauxhurst 
Townsend Weekes 
ThoV Place 
Jacobus Suydani 
Rem. Ilardcnburg 
Geori^o Weekes 
Dan'l Weekes 
John Van Noorstrandt 
Wm. Snedeker 
S. Claves 
W. Pool 

Sam'l H. Davenport 
Wm. Hewlett 
Ambrose Seaman 
J onathan (.lildcrsleeve 
Benj. Smith. R. 
Isaac Jackson 
J. Dorlon 
Tho's Tredwell 
Jonathan Cornelius 
Joseph Smith 
Silas Smith 
John Fetherbe 
Tillot Colwell 
Geo. Downing 
Geo. Bayles 
John Tilley 
Jacob Valentine 
Jacob Carpenter 
33 



Anthony Weekes 
Annanias Downing 
John Schcnck 
Wm. Weyman 
James Moore 
Wm. T.cverich 
John Curtis 
Jolin Debevoise 
Abm. rolhcuvus, Jun. 
Joseph Ciorsline 
Jacob llallet, Jun. 
John Monel 
Joseph lUirvoughs 
John Retcham, Jun. 
Richard Rapalje 
Jared Curtis 
Abraham Rapalje 
Wm. Bcnuet 
Stephen Renne 
Isaac Erinckerhoff 
Wm. Creed, Jun. 
David l.ambcrtson 
Isaac Amberman 
Wm. Willis 
Mordecai Willis 
Jos. Skidmore, Sen. 
Lewis Davenport 
Aaron Van Nostr.and 
Abm. Van Nostrand 
Dan'l Rapalje 
Rulof Duryee 
Obadiah Mills 
Jeremiah Rcmsen 
Robt. Doughty 
Jo's Lawrence 
Simon Simons 
Amos Mills 
Teunis Covert, Jun. 
John Voorhies 
Stephen Lott 



514 



EARLY LONG ISLAND. 



Derrick Bensen 
Israel Pettit 
James Marr 
Jonathan Furman 
Sam'l Tredwell 
Robert Dixon 
Charles Cornell 
Nathaniel Wright 
Stephen Wright 
Domenicus Van Dine 
Arus Van Dine 
John Remsen 
Stephen Voris 
Clark Cock 
Rem Remsen 
H. Higbie 

Hendrick Emans, Jun. 
Jonathan Fish 
John Talman 
Thos. Furman 
John Carpenter 
Sam'l Clement 
Sam'l Mott Cornell 
Johannes Bergen 
Peter Ryerson 
Tho's Fowler 
H. Townsend, Jun. 
J, Van Wicklen 
Jac. Rhinelander 
Levi Weekes 
Caleb Underbill 
Dan. Weekes 
Chas. Burnett 
Richard Weekes 
Robt. Hall 
John Robbins, Sen. 
Baruch AUer 
Daniel Terry 
Isaac Smith 
Arnold Fleet 



Wm. Hoogland 
Dan'l Duryee 
Jas. Vancot 
John Bennet, Sen. 
John Weekes, Jun. 
Jeremiah Cheshire 
Dan'l Birdsall 
John Duryee 
Garret Monfort 
George Duryea 
Edmund Lindsay 
Absalom Wooden 
John Butler, Jun. 
Josias Latten 
Amariah Wheeler 
Jo. Wortman 
Joshua Hammond 
Melancthon Thome 
Abraham Seaman 
Sam'l Townsend 
Penn Cock 

Daniel Van Velred (?) 
John Allen 
Robert Jackson 
Baruch Snedeker 
Isaac Robbins 
Jeronimus Bennet, Sen. 
Garret Noorstrand, Jun. 
Benj. Lester 
Richard Langdon 
Ja's Smith 
Luke Cummins 
Benj. Dorlon 
Henry Miller 
Cornelius Van Noorstand 
John Van Noorstrand 
John Birdsall 
Increase Pettit 
Tho's Felherbe 
Dan'l Smith, Jun, 



APPENDIX IV. 



515 



Sam'l Birdsall 
Sam'l Jackson, the 3rd 
Stephen Coles 
Sam'l Spragg 
John Verity 
Abraham Baldin 
Amos Powell 
Micah Williams 
John Smith 
Stephen Powell 
Thos. Dorlon 
Benj. Smith, Jun. 
Seaman Watts 
John Baker 
Sam. Carman 
P. Pettitt 
John Lefferts 
Thos. Clowes 
Elijah Spragg 
John Townsend 
Richard Townsend 
Ben. Borland 
S. Stringham 
Stephen Baldin 
Richard Bruer 
Isaac Smith 
Frederick Nostrand 
Jackson Mott 
Coles Carpenter 
Nath'l Coles 
Thos. Underhill 
Benj. Lattin 
John Jackson, Jun. 
Stephen Thorne 
Jas. Bennett 
Peter Sniffen 
Dan'l Lawrence 
John Moore 
Jacob Moore 
Wm, Sackett 



John J. Waters 

John Bragaw 

Chas. Debevois 

John Kearns 

David Van Wickel 

Peter Bragaw 

Abm. Brinckerhoff, Jun. 

Robt. Field 

J. Van Aulst 

Howard Furman 

Thos. North 

John Fish 

Joseph Morrell 

Cornelius Rapalje 

John Williamson 

Wm. Van Wyck 

Isaac Amberman 

Jacob Ogden 

J. Smith 

Abm. Colyer 

Nicholas Everitt 

Isaac Rhoads 

John Brush 

Sam'l Messenger 

Nath'l Mills 

Bernardus Hendrickson 

Will Colder 

John Rice 

Sam'l Smith 

John Kissam 

Daniel Kissam, 3rd 

John Searing 

Wilson Williams 

Thos. Thorne, Jr. 

John Tredwell 

John Searing 

Elbert Hegeman, Jun. 

Adam Mott, Sen. 

Simon Sands 

John Smith 



5i6 



EARLY LONG ISLAND. 



Wm. Cornwell ' 

Jas. Hewlett 

John Mitchell, Jun. 

Sam'l Wooley 

Benj. Cheeseman 

Philip Valentine 

John Marvin 

Richard Tovvnsend 

Richard Townsend, Jun. 

John Golding 

John Smith 

Daniel Wyllis 

Elbert Brinckerhoff 

Teunis Bergen 

Robt. Mitchell 

Jacob Nostrand 

Edward Burling 

Teunis Brinckerhoff 

George Brinckerhoff 

Isaac Bragaw 

Sam'l Seaman 
Charles Hicks, Jun. 
Walter Skidmore 
Thos. Valentine 
Reuleff Vorhoes 
Nicholas Provoost 
Jacob Field 
David Hallet 
John Williams 
Sam'l Carman 
Silas Carman 
Richard Lowden 
John Snedeker 
Luke Eldert 
John Waters 
Sam'l Skidmore, Jun. 
Jacques Johnson 
Cornelius Bennett 
Albert Snedeker 
Sam'l Skidmore 



Philip Allen 

Henry Allen 

John Allen 

Stephen Van Wyck 

Chas. Hicks 

Nehemiah Carpenter 

George Cornwell 

John Cock 

Richard Lattin 

John Bremner 

Joseph Place, Cordwainer 

Luke Bergen 

Sam'l Thorne 

George Thorne 

John Roe 

Jacob Gorsling 

Thos. Lowere 

Sam'l Moore, Sen. 

Isaac Lawrence 

Jacobus Lint 

Abraham Lint 

Isaac Lint 

Thos. Lawrence 

Samuel Cornell 

Benj. Everitt 

John Burtis 

Hendrick Suydam 

Cornelius Ryersen 

Isaac Lefferts 

Wm. Glenne 

Martin Rapalje 

Jacob Carpenter 

Joshua Carpenter 

Da. Field 

Whit. Field 

Joshua Snediker 

W, Creed, Sen. 

Robt. Coe, Jun. 

Sam'l Fosdick 

Abm. V. Wicklen 



APPENDIX IV. 



517 



Nicholas Weelces 

Johannes Covert 

Geo. Wright 

Absalom Townsend 

Geo. Youngs 

Thos. Fleet 

W. McCoron 

John Robbins 

Jacob Robbins 

Jacob Van Noorstrandt 

Micha Weekes 

Elias Chardoyne 

Cornelius Hoogland, Jun. 

John Doty 

Cornelius Vancott 

Nicholas Bennett 

W. Bennett 

Daniel Burr 

Somick Birdsall 

Sam'l Weekes 

Peter Nostrandt 

John Hewlett, Sen. 

Joost Duryea 

Henry Powell 

John Amberman 

H. Ludlow, Jun. 

Isaac Weekes 

John Schenck 

David Tilby 

Robert Townsend 

Daniel Youngs, Jun. 

John Hauxhurst 

Jonathan Gorham 

Chas. Gulliver 

Henry Townsend 

Minne Van Sicklen 

Isaac Seaman 

Robt. Jackson, Jun. 

Jas. Townsend, Dr. 

Wm. Crystall 



Garret Noorstrandt 
John Baker 
Gorce Snedeker 
Sylvanus Bedell 
W. Welling 
Richard Smith 
Jas. Haurahan 
David Sammis 
Annanias Southard 
Jonathan Pratt 
Jas. Birdsall 
W. Pettit 
Sam'l Dorlon 
Dan'l Smith 
Sam'l Jackson 
Sam'l Greene 
Richard Smith 
Richard Pine 
Sam'l Dorlon 
Isaac Smith 
Peter Jones 
Garret Colder 
John Mott 
W. Thurston 
Peter Lowge 
Leffert Hangewort 
Zebulon Smith 
Wm. vSmith, Jun. 
Thos. Seaman 
Sam'l Nichols. 
Timothy Rhodes 
Gerardus Clowes 
Benj. Wiggins 
Thos. Wiggins 
Sam'l Abrams 
Jos. Pettit, Jun. 
Benj. Dorlon 
Pelham Sands 
Carman Burtis 
Carman Rushmore 



5i8 



EARLY LONG ISLAND. 



Sam'l Shaw 
David Bedell 
Noah Combs 
John De Mott 
Dan'l Cock, Jun. 
Townsend Dickinson 
Rem. Hegeman 
Dan'l Coles 
Jeronimus Bennet 
John Probasco 
Michael Mudge 
Solomon Craft 
Chas. Frost 
W. Coles 
Thorn. Goldin 
Benj. Coles 
Geo. Downing 
Clarke LawTence 
John Moore, Jun. 
Ja's Moore 
Thos. Morrell 
Jeronimus Remsen 
Thos. Betts 
George Debevois 
Edward Ortus 
Thos. Hunt 
Wm. Furman 
Gabriel Furman 
John Petti t 
John Van Alst, Jun. 
Geo. Sands 
John Greenoak 
John Greenoak, Jun. 
Geo. Rapalje 
John Martin 
Martin Johnson 
John Amber man 
Tho's Hindman 
Obadiah Hindman 
John Hindman 



Amos Denton 
Sam'l Higbie 
Dan'l Everitt 
Lambert Moore 
Dan'l Smith 
Sam'l Mills 
Aaron Hendrickson 
Garret Noorstrandt 
Thos. Martin 
Nath'l Denton 
Benj. Akerly 
Joseph Hewlett 
John Thomas 
Thos. Pearsall 
Joseph Thome 
Thos. Hallowell 
H. Sands 

Adrian Onderdonk 
John Whaley 
John Morrell 
Israel Baxter 
Philip Wooley 
Joseph Clement, Jun. 
Richard Place 
Sam'l Way 
Martin Schenck 
Peter Losee 
Jonathan Searing 
Jos. Starkings 
Derrick Albertsen 
Philip Young 
J. J. Troup 
Andries Kashaw 
Chas. Cornell 
John Mitchell 
Henry Townsend 
W. Frost 
Henry Ludlani 
Jos. Ludlam 
Jacob Duryee 



APPENDIX IV. 



519 



Dan'l W. Kissam 
John Burt is 
Aaron Duryee 
W. Bennett 
Thos. Cornell 
Hervey Colwell 
Albert Coles 
Rbt. Thorney Croft 
Baruch Cornell 
Daniel Kirby 
Comfort Cornell 
Richard Sands 
Dan'l Abertson 
John Whippo 
W. Crooker 
Joseph Lawrence 
Dan'l Hopkins 
Thos. Alsop 
Martin Van Noostrandt 
Jeremiah Post 
Sylvester Cornell 
Edward Colwell 
Thos. Ludlam 
Dan'l Cock 
John Needham 
Joseph Denton 
Robt. Valentine 
W. Willing 
Philip Allen 

Birdsall, Jun. 

Elijah Wood 
Ja's Pine 
John Boerum 
John Hendricksen 
Ja's Wood 
W. Cornell 
Richard Hallet 
Obadiah Valentine 
Geo. Weekes, Sen. 
Job Duryee 



Joseph Denton 
Aaron Simonson 
Hendrick Emmens 
Seaman Weekes 
Jacob Williams 
David Waters 
Nicholas Van Andalen 
W. Hallet 
Anthony Rhoades 
Ja's Wooden 
Jacob Kashaw 
Chas. Feke 
Daniel Underbill 
Stephen Denton 
Sam'l Townsend 
Dan'l Hall 
Elijah Cook 
Gilbert M'Cown 
John Fleet 
John Weekes, Sen. 
Baruck Underbill 
H. Wheeler 
J. Chiser 
Thos. Wright 
Gabriel Duryea 
Stephen Hendricksen 
Garret Bennett 
Augustine M'Cown 
Nicholas Wright 
W. Burell 
Jacobus Ryder 
Penn Weeks 
Benjamin Cock 
Luke Fleet 
Sam'l Cheshire 
Tice Lane 
Derrick Amberman 
Michael Butler 
Robt. Colwell 
Peter Wheeler 



520 



EARL Y LONG ISLAND. 



Israel Remsen, Jr. 
John Townsend, Jr. 
Joseph Weekes 
Nicholas Van Cott 
John Waters 
Jos Hauxhurst 
Jacob Bedell 
Win. Ludlam 
Jonathan Seaman 
Jacob Williams 
Gilbert Wright 
John Youngs 
Jeronimus Bennet 
Peter Hegeman 
Chas. Simonson 
Adam Mott 
Jacobus Lawrence 
Epenetus Piatt 
Dan'l Hewlett, Jun. 
Peter Cock 
Caleb Southward 
John Pratt 
Oliver Birdsall 
John Pettit 
Joseph Dorlen 
Samuel Denton 
Townsend Jackson 
Gershom Smith 
W^m Smith, Jun. 
Benj. Carman 
John Post 
Tho's Seaman 
Sam*l Mott 
Sam'l Mott, 3rd 
Parmenius Jackson 
Joseph Hall 
Jonathan Hall. Jun. 
Solomon Pool 
Obadiah Seaman 
Richard Rhoades 



Samuel Pettett 
Thos. Borland 
Obadiah Pettett 
Daniel Murray 
Jonathan Hegeman 
Joseph Clowes 
Nicholas Betty 
Samuel Sands 
Ja's Burtis 
John Jackson 
Benjamin Jackson 
Elias Dorlon, 3rd 
Walter Covert 
Samuel Demott 
Jno. Foster 
Jacamiah Bedell 
Ja's Townsend, Jun. 
Obadiah Lawrence 
Tim Ellison 
Geo. Bennett 
Amos Underhill 
Peter Thorny Craft 
W. Roe 
Samon Crooker 
Jacobus Luister 
Hewlett Townsend 
John Weekes 
Peter Monfort 
Daniel Debevois 
Jacob Downing 
Jonathan Smith 
Nicholas Moore 
Nicholas Moore, Jun. 
Richard Morrell 
Samuel Waldron 
John Way 
BenJ. Moore 
Geo. Brinckerhoff 
Geo. Brinckerhoff, 3rd 
Thos. Burroughs 



APPENDIX IV. 



521 



Hendrick Jacobs 
James Morrell 
J. M'Donnough 
Edmond Penfold 
Jeronimus Rapalje 
Joseph Burling 
Richard Rhodes 
Nicholas Amberman 
Thos Denton 
Amos Denton, Jun. 
Garret Van Wicklen 
Jacob Lott 
Wm. Ludlam, Sen. 
Wm. Forbus 
Thos. Higbie 
Abm. Hendrickson 
Albert Hendrickson 
Thos. Watts 
Jas. Everett 
Nicholas Mills, Jun. 
Jabez Woodruff 
Peter Onderdonk 
Joris Rapalje 
Elbert Hegeman 
John Burtis 
Joseph Ackerly 
Ed. Perry 
Caleb Morrell 
Hendrick Onderdonk 
Jacob Oumstead 
Andrew Hegeman, Jr. 
Wm, Smith 
Timothy Smith 
James Howard 
Philip Piatt Smith 
Philip Thorne 
Chas. Titus 
Sam'l Titus 
[acob Valentine 
Benj. Downing 



Benj. Tredwell 

Benj. Tredwell, Dr. 

John Bashford 

Thos. Seaman Cooper 

Richard Fuller 

Philip Thorne 

Jeromus Rapalje 

George Duncan Ludlow 

Daniel Kissam 

Leonard Cutting, Rev'd 

David Colden 

Gabriel G. Ludlow Col. 

Joshua Bloomer, Rev'd. 

Abm. Walton 

Charles Ardin 

Valentine Hewlett Peters 

Jonathan Fish 

Samuel Fish 

Robt. Crommelin 

John Shoals 

Joseph Field 

Thos. Smith 

Sam'l Cornell 

Hendrick Brinckerhoff 

Dan'l Hewlett, Sen. 

Uriah Piatt 

John Stone 

Richard Alsop 

Daniel Duryee 

Chas M'Evers 

Daniel Feke 

Jacob Mott 

James Hallett 

Wm Hallett 

Geo. Ryerson 

Richard Smith 

Abm. Lawrence 

John Townsend 

Stephen Thorne 

Dan'l Brinckerhofl 



522 



EARLY LONG ISLAND. 



Prior Townsend 

Abm. Schenck 

W. Cock 

Richard Titus 

Peter Titus 

Peter Titus, Jun. 

Elbert Adrianse 

Stephen Frost 

Simon Remsen 

Caspar Sprong 

Cornelius Rapalje 

Harman Hendrickson 

James Carpenter 
Penn Frost 

John Polhemus 

Wm. Latting 

Jonathan Morrell 
Edward Thorne 
Stephen Thome, Jr. 

John Butler 
Stephen Mudy 
Andrew Ricker 
Thos. Howell Smith 
Geo. Underhill 
John Lambertson 
Isaac Remsen 
Thos. Cock 
Mowry Kashaw 
Wm. Wright 
Jonathan Resell 
Wm. Reuben Hall 
Procolus McCown 
John Needham, Jr. 
Sam'l Townsend 
Thos. Colwell 
Sam'l Hare, Jun. 
Sam'l Hare, Sen. 
Sam'l Jones 
Wm. Jones 
David Jones 



John Jones 
Walter Jones 
Wm. Hall 
Abm. Wansor 
John Bennett, Jr. 
Geo. Townsend 
Jeremiah Robbins 
Stephen Robbins 
Daniel Burr, Jun. 
Daniel Noostrand 
Hamomond Leland 
John Hewlett 
Garrett Duryee 
John Rider 
Henry Wanser, Jun. 
Peter Noostrand, Jun. 
Levi Cock 
Gideon Wright 
Cornelius Remsen 
Sam'l Hawkhurst 
Wm. Townsend 
Sam'l Baulding 
Abel Baulding 
Noah Mott, Jun. 
W. Hawxhurst 
Wm. Vanreelred 
John Suydam 
John Miller 
John Cashaw 
Stephen Vedito 
John Noostrandt 
Elias Wheeler 
Nehemiah Sammis 
Sam'l Langdon 
H. Woolsey 
Solomon Doxy 
Henry Shaw 
Wm. Stiles 
Solomon Seaman 
John Duryee 



APPENDIX IV. 



523 



Joseph Edall 

David Dorlon 

Andrew Allen 

William Smith 

Richard Jackson, Jun. 

Richard Jackson 

Obadiah Jackson 

Johannes Van Cott, Jun. 

John Jackson 

Jacob Seaman 

Morris Green 

Sam'l Combs 

Peter Schenck 

John Laton 

Peter Thomas 

Wm Stilwell 

John Smith 

Coles Mudge 

Wm. Mudge 

John Luyster 

Albert Albertson 

Derrick Albertson 

Joseph Coles 

Benj. Thorney Croft 

Henry Thorney Croft 

Wm. Laton 

Alb. Van Noostrand 

Richard Townsend 

Jarvis Coles 

Benj. Dowing 

Stephen Smith 

Solomon Moore 

David Moore 

William Howard 

Robt. Coe 

Mr. Lawrence 

John Debevoise, Jun. 

Daniel Wiggins 

Teunis BrinckerhofT 

Bernardus Bloom 



Dan'l Luyster 
Richard Betts 
Robert Jackson 
John Snow 
Samu'l Wainwright 
John Denise, Jr. 
John Charlton 
John Bennett 
John Rhoades 
John Montayne 
Abraham Lott 
Benj. Creed 
Joseph Thome 
Daniel Cornvvell 
Moses Higbee 
Hope Roads 
Cornelius Losee 
Hendrick Hendrickson 
Abraham Ditmars 
Joseph Golders 
Nicholas Van Dam 
Caleb Knells 
James Hughton 
Joseph Oldfield 
Thos. Thome 
Wm. Hutchings 
Thomas Dodge 
Jonathan Hutchings 
Richard Thorne 
Thomas Appleby 
Benj. Wooley 
Hendrick Van Der Bilt 
Sam'l Latham 
Nicholas Willson 
Henry Alleine, Sen. 
Samuel Hewlett 
Benjamin Sands 
John Thorne 
Samuel Balding 
James Crosher 



524 



EARLY LONG ISLAND. 



Richaul Kirk 
Peter Waters 
Wm. Williams 
Caleb Cornell 
William Cox 
Powell Amberman 
Jacob Doughty 
John Van Nostrandt 



Joseph Skidmore 
Abm. Demott 
John Kashaw 
Jo. Coe 

Al. Brinckerhotl 
Benj. Tredwell 
Richard Wisgrins.' 



(1293) 



* Am. AtvJkhvs, series v., vol. ii., pp. 1159-64. 







,-,'?'^ 



^ 



^o3 



>• 



APPENDIX V. 



(For page 425.) 



^ c i i '^'V' V^ 



THE KINGS COUNTY ADDRESSERS. 



Rem. Adriance 
Robert Atkins, 2d 
Peter Amberman 
Harmon Ando 
John Antonides 
Vincentius Antonides 
Wm. Axtel 

Lodowick Bamber, N. Y. 
Everts Bancker, Jun. 
Wm. Barre 
Charles Barre 
John Beenem 
James Bennet 
John Bennet 
Peter Bennet 
Jereh Bennet 
Abraham Bennet, 2 
Cornelius Bennet 
AVilliam Bennet, 2 
Lucas Benberg 
Jan Bennet 
Moses Beedle 
Derrick Bergen 
Teunis Bergen 
Simon Bergen, 2 



Michael Bergen 
Johannis Bergen 
Thos. Betts, 2 
Cornelius Bise 
John Blake 
Nicholas Blom 
Gerritt Boerum 
Ferdinant Boerum 
Jacob Boerum 
Johannes Boerum 
John Boerum 
Abraham Bogart, 2 
Cars Bogart 
Gisbert Bogart 
John Boyce 
Daniel Boyd 
Jacques Borkelow 
Harmanus Borkelow 
Cornelius Buys 
Daniel Buys 
John Buys 
Thomas Colange 
George Carpenter 
Martinus Carshow 
Jacob Carshow 



525 



526 



EARLY LONG ISLAND. 



Wm. Chardovoyne 
John McClenachan 
Joseph Compton 
Andries Conselye 
John Conselje 
Gabriel Cook, 2 
Jacobus Cornell 
Peter Cornell, 2 
Wm Cornell 
Isaac Cornell 
John Cornell 
Whitehead Cornell 
Peter Cortelyou 
Jacques Cortelyou 
John Covert, 3 
Richard Covert 
Jeremiah Covert 
Jacob Cosyn 
Cornelius Cozine 
John Crawley 
John Cowwenhoven 
John R. Couwenhoven 
James Couwenhoven 
Nicholas Couwenhoven 
Rem Couwenhoven 
Casper Crisper 
Harmon Crisperpeer 
Johannes Debevoise 
John Debevoise 
Charles Debevoise, 2 
Samuel Debevoise 
Joost Debevoise 
George Debevois 
Jacobus Debevoice 
Abm. Deforest 
John Demott 
Isaac Denyse 
Denyse Denyse 
Rutgers Denyse 
Frederick Depeyster 



John De Voe, 2 
John Ditmars 
Johannes Ditmars, 3 
John J. Ditmars 
Charles Duryee 
Abraham Duryee 
Simon Duryee 
Charles. T. Duryee 
Cornelius Duryee 
Christian Duryee 
Johannes Duryea 
Jacobus Duryea 
Peter Duryee, 2 
Isaac Eldert 
Johannes Eldert 
Thos. Ellsworth 
John Emans 
Jacobus Emans, 2 
Abraham Emans, 2 
Thos. Everit 
John Fooshert 
Colen Folkertson 
Wm Furman 
Robert Galbraith 
John Gavel 
Sam'l Garrison 
Sam'l Garresen 
Jacobus Golden 
Geo. Goslin 
Robt. Hargrave, N. Y. 
John Harris 
John Hailet 
Frederic Hatfield 
Adrian Hegeman, 2 
John Hegeman, 2 
Peter Hegeman, 2 
Jacobus Hegeman 
James Hegeman 
Everts Hegeman 
Petrus Hegeman 



APPENDIX V. 



527 



Joseph Hegeman 
Abraham Hegeman 
Rem Hegeman 
Teunis Hegeman 
Israel Horsefield 
Thos. Horsefield 
C, Wm Howard 
Joseph Howard 
Jacob Hicks 
Samuel Hubbard 
Bernardus Hubbard 
Elias Hubbard, 2 
James Hubbard 
John Hulst 
Wm. Johnson 
John Johnson 
Hendrick Johnson 
Coert Johnson 
Fornant Johnson 
Barent Johnson, 3 
Daniel Jones 
Jacob Kershaw 
Tunis Kershaw 
Wm. Kowenhoven 
Peter Kowenhoven 
Gerrit Kowenhoven 
Court Lake 
Derrick Lake 
Daniel Lake 
Leffert Lefferts, 2 
Hendrick Lefferts 
Jacob Lefferts 
Barent Lefferts 
Nicholas Lefferts 
Jan Lequier 
Abm. Lequer 
John Lewis 
John McClenachan 
Roeloff Lott 
Engelbert Lott, 2 



Johannes Lott, 2 
Petrus Lott 
Johannes E. Lott 
John Lott 
Hendrick Lott 
Christopher Lott 
Simon Lott 
Jeromus Lott 
Jurien Lott 
Maurice Lott, 2 
Gerrit Martense, 2 
Adrian Martense 
Jores Martense, 2 
Lefferts Martense 
Isaac Martense 
Leonard May 
Jacob Meserole 
John Milber 
Garret Middagh 
John Middagh 
David Molenaar 
Geo. Moore 
Abm. Murff 
John Murphe 
Petrus Muesenbeldt 
Petrus Neefus 
Peter Neefus ^ 

John Myford 
Philip Nagal 
John Nostrand 
Garret Noostrandt 
John Oake 
Hendrick Oake 
Thos. Piersall 
Wm Plownar 
Theo'd's Polhemus, 2 
Abraham Polhemus 
John Polhemus 
Jonathan Post 
Thos. Powels 



528 



EARLY LONG ISLAND. 



Peter Praa Provoost 
John Rapalje, Jun. 
Daniel Rapalje 
George Rapalje 
Teunis Rapalje 
Folkert Rapalje 
Jores Rapalje 
Martin Reyers 
Joseph Reyers 
Johannes Remsen 
John A. Remsen 
Abraham Remen 
William Remsen 
George Remsen 
Derrick Remsen, 2 
Aris Remsen 
Jeromus Remsen 
Rem A. Remsen 
Joris Remsen, 2 
Edward Reynolds 
John Casper Rubell, 

V. D. M. 
Barnardus Ryder 
Laurence Ryder 
Samuel Ryder 
Stephen Ryder 
"Wilhelmus Ryder 
Jacob Ryerson 
John Ryerson, 2 
Hendrick Schenck 
Stephen Schenck, 2 
Nicholas Schenck 
Martin Schenck, 2 
John Schenck, 2 
Jan Schenck 
Caleb Schofield 
Benj. Seaman 
Chas. Semper 
Isaac Selover 
Jacob Sickels 



Hendrick Sickels 
Daniel Simonsen 
Frederick Simonsen 
Evert Shareman 
John Skillman 
Thos. Skillman 
John Smith 
Lewis Sness 
Isaac Snedeker, 2 
Abraham Snedeker 
Johannes Snedeker 
Jacob Snedeker 
David Sprong 
Gabriel Sprong 
Stephen Sprong 
William Sprong 
Volkert Sprong, Jr. 
Jacobus Suydam 
Hendrick Suydam, 4 
John Suydam, 3 
Lambert Suydam 
Hendrick H. Suydam 
Vernandt Suydam 
Andrew Suydam 
Evert Suydam 
Tunis Suydam 
Fernandus Suydam 
Jacobus Suydam 
Sam'l Sullen 
Albert Terhune 
Roeloff Terhune 
Chas. Titus 
David Titus 
Frans Titus 
Tetus Titus 
Teunis Tiebout 
Henry Van Eueren 
Israel Van Brunt 
Albert Van Brunt 
Adrian Van Brunt 



APPENDIX V. 



529 



William Van Brunt 
Rufert Van Brunt, 4 
Cornelius Van Brunt 
Cort Van Brunt 
Jan Van Duyn 
Cornelius Van Duyne, 3 
Jan Van Dyne 
John Van Wyck 
William Van Dyck, 2 
Hendrick Van Cleef 
John Van Cleef, 2 
David Van Cleef, 2 
Aert Van Pelt 
Wynant Van Pelt 
Johannes Van Pelt, 2 
Rem Van Pelt, 2 
Jacob Van Nuys 
Wilhelmus Van Nuys 
Joost Vnn Nuys 
Ulpianus Van Sinderem, 

V. D. M. 
Cornelius Van Sice 
Chas. Van Sice 
Garret Van Sise 
John Van Sicklen 
Fernandes Van Sicklen 
Johanes Van Sicklen 
Emant Van Sickel 
Jeremias Vanderbilt 
John Vanderbilt, 2 
Rem. Vanderbilt 
Peter Vanderbilt, 2 
Wm. Vanderwoorst 
Paul Vanderwoorst 
Jan Vanderwoorst 
John Vanderwoorst 
Michael Vanderwoorst 
Lambert Vanderwoorst 
John Vanderveer, 2 
34 



Hendrick Vanderveer 
Cornelius Vanderveer, Jr. 
Gerrit Van dine 
Mat Vandyke 
Isaac Vandergelder 
Jacobus Vandeventer 
Burger Vandewater 
Peter Vandewater 
John Van Varck 
Cornelius Van Zinse 
Niclase Vegte 
Joseph Vonet 
Adrian Voorhees 
Abraham Voorhees 
Laurence Voorhees 
Peter Voorhees 
Stephen Voorhees 
Robert Voorhees 
John Voorhees 
Aert Voorhees 
Thos. Whitlock 
Joseph White 
Garret Williamson 
William Williamson 
Jeremiah Williamson 
Peter Williamson 
David Wortmer 
Nicholas Williamson 
Parent Wyckoff 
Nicholas Wyckoff 
Peter Wyckoff 
Hendrick Wyckoff 
Johannes Wyckoff 
Cornelius Wyckoff 
Joost Wyckoff 
Gerritt Wyckoff 
John Youngs 
Samuel Zeller 

(454 names) 



^^^-^ 




•»a^ 



APPENDIX VI. 



LIST OF BOOKS CONSULTED. 



Adams, Ilenn-. History of United States. 

" John, Journals of. 
Alexander, William, (Lord Sterling), Life of. W. A. Puer. 
Alvord, John W. Bi-Centennial of Stamford. 1S40. 
America, Being an Accurate Description Thereof. John Ogilvy. 
London. 1670. 
" Chronological Observations of. John Josselyn, Gent. 

London. 1674. 
" Critical Historj- of. Justin Winsor. 
" Discoveries of . Arthur James Weise. 
" Nevves from. John Underhill. London. 163S. 
" North, Geological View of (in Cuvier's Theor}' of the 

Earth). Samuel Latham Mitchell. 
" " Travels in, in 17S6. Jean Francois Chastel lux, 

Paris, 1790. 
" " Travels in, in 1749. Peter Kalm. London. 1772. 

•• " " •' Middle Settlements of, in 1759. Andrew 

Burnaby. 
American Archives, series iv. and v. Peter Force. 
" Biography. Jeremy Belknap. 1794. 
" History, Critical Period of. John Fiske. 
" •' Magazine of. 

" Revolution. Diar}- of. Frank Moore. 
Historical MSS. of. 
History of. Carlo Guiseppe Botta. 

" John Fiske. 

Incidents of. . Henr)- Onderdonk. 
Journal of. R. Lamb. 

530 



APPENDIX VI. 531 

Atwater, Edward E. Collections of New Haven Historical Society. 

Baird, Charles W. History of Hnguenot Emigration. 

Bancroft, George. History of the United States. 

Bartram, F. S. Retrographs of New York. 

Bates, Walter. Kingston and the Loyalists. Saint John. 1SS6. 

Battles of the United States. H. C. Dawson. 

Bayless, R. Early History of Suffolk County. 

Belknap, Jeremy. American Biography. 1794. 

Benson, Egbert. Indian and Dutch Names of Long Island. 1809. 

Bergen, Teunis. Early History of Kings County. 

Block Island, Early History of. Robert Dodge. 

" S. T. Livermore. 
Bond, Henry. Genealogical History of Watertown, Mass. 
Botta, Carlo Guiseppe. Historj' of the American Revolution. 
British Prisons. Henry Onderdonk. 
Brooklyn, Battle of. A Farce. Anonymous. 
" History of. Gabriel Furman. 
" H. D. Styles. 
Burnaby, Andrew. Travels in the Middle Settlements of North 

America. 
Chalmers, George. Political Annals of the United Colonies to 1763 ; 

Revolt of the Colonies. 
Chastellux, Jean Fran9ois. Travels in North America. 
Cocks, George W. Glen Cove of the Past. 1S93. 
Colonial Era, The. George P. Fisher. 

" Records of Connecticut. Benjamin Trumbull. 1797. 
" Tracts. Peter Force. 
Curwin, Samuel, Journal of. 

Dankers and Sluyter. Visit to New York. 1679-1680. 
Darling, Charles W. New Amsterdam ; New Orange ; New York. 
Dawson, H. C. Battles of the United States. 
De Cotta, B. F. Verrazano's Letter. (Coll. N. Y. Hist. Soc'y, 

ser. i., vol. ii.) 
De Laet, Johann. De Novis Orbis. Leyden. 1624. 
Denton, Daniel. A Description of New York. London. 1670. 
Dodge, Robert. Early History of Block Island. 
Duer, William Alexander. Life of William Alexander, (Lord 

Sterling). 
Easthampton, History of. John Lyon Gardiner. 

" George R. Howell. 



<i 



532 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

Easthampton, Town Records of. 

Eaton, Arthur Wentworth. The Church in Nova Scotia. 

Ellis, George. The Loyalists (in Winsor's America, vol. vii.) ; 

Life of Benjamin Thompson, (Count Rumford). 
England, History of. John Lingard. 

" in the Eighteenth Century. William E. H. 

Lecky. 
English Notes and Queries. 
Esse.K Institute, Historical Collections of the. 
Excursion in tlie United States. Henry Wansey. 
Farmer, . Notes on Long Island. 

Felt, Joseph B. Annals of Salem. 
Fernow, Berthold. Documents of the Colonial History of New 

York. 
Field, T. W. Battle of Long Island. 
Fisher, George P. The Colonial Era. 
Fiske, John. The American Revolution ; The Critical Period of 

American History. 
Fitz Maurice, Edmund George Petty. Life of Lord Shelbume. 
Flatbush, History of. Strong. 

" Social Life of. Gertrude Lefferts Vanderbilt. 
Flushing, Histon,- of. Mandeville. 

" Records of the Men's Meeting of. 
Force. Peter. American Archives ; Political Tracts. 
French, J. H. Gazetteer of New York. 
Furman, Gabriel. Antiquities of Long Island ; History of 

Brooklyn. 
Gaine, Hugh. Universal Register. 
Gardiner, John Lyon. History of Easthampton. 

" Lion. The Pequot Warrcs. 
Generall Historic. Captain John Smith. London. 1626. 
Gentleman's Magazine. London. 1731-90. 
Geological Guide to the United States. James Macfarlane. 
Geology of the State of New York. W. W. Mather. 
Gerard, James. Deborah Moody. 
Glen Cove, Bi-Centennial Address. H. Scudder. 
Glen Cove of the Past. George W. Cocks. 1S93. 
Greenleaf, Thomas. Laws of New York. 
Hakluvt, Richard, Yoyages of. 
Hannay, James. The Loyalists ; Saint John. 1S92. 



APPENDIX VI. 533 

Hempstead, Annals of. Henry Onderdonk. Hemstead. 1S7S. 

" Antiquities of. Henry Onderdonk. Hempstead. 1S78. 

Early. Charles B. Moore. 1S70. 
" Nortli, and Roslyn. Henr}- Onderdonk. 

" Town Records, 165 7-1 784. 

Hildrelh, Richard, History of the United States. 
Historical Magazine, 1S57-1S74. 

Hoadley, Charles J, Records of New Haven Colony, 1638-1665. 
Howell, George R. History of Easthampton ; Suffolk County. 
Hubbard, \Yilliam. History of Indian Wars. 

" " Massachusetts Colony, 1677. 
Huguenot Emigration, History of. Charles W. Baird. 

" Society, Collections of. Alfred V. Wittmeyer. 

Huntington, Elijah B. History of Stamford. 
Huntington, Town Records of. 

Hutchinson, Thomas. Diary of; History of Massachusetts Bay. 
Indian Names of the Hudson. Henrj- R. Schoolcraft. 

" Long Island. William Wallace Tooker. 
" and Dutch Names of Long Island. Egbert Benson. 1S09. 
" Wars, History of. William Hubbard. 
Jamaica, Antiquities of the Church of. Henry Onderdonk. Jamaica, 
iSSo. 
" History of the Presbyterian Church of. MacDonald. 

" Records of Christ Church. 

" Town Books of. 1657-1775. 

Janvier, Thomas AUibone. In Old New York. 
Jogues, Isacq. Xovutn Belgium. 1643. 
Johnson, Edward. Wonder-Working-Providence of Sion's Saviour. 

London. 1654. 
Johnston, Alexander. Connecticut. 

Jones, Thomas. History of New York City during the Revolution. 
Josselyn, John, Gent. Chronological Obser\'ations on America, 

1674 ; Account of Two Yoyages to New England, 1673. 
Kalm, Peter. Travels in America, 1749. London. 1772. 
Kings County, Early History of. Teunis Bergen. 

History of. H. D. Styles. 
Kingston and the Loyalists. Walter Bates. Saint John. 1SS6. 
Lamb, Martha J. History of the City of New York. 

" R. Journal of the Revolution. 
Lambrechtsen, N. C. Korte Beschreijvung van de Onthedekkung. 
Amsterdam. iSig. 



534 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

La\vrence, J- W. Footprints of the Loyalists. Saint John. 1S33. 

Laws of New York. Thos. Greenieaf. 

Lechford, Thomas. Plain Dealings, or Newes from New England. 

London. 1641. 
Lecky, William E. H. History of England in the Eighteenth 

Century. 
Lewis, Alonzo. History of Lynn. 1840. 
Lingard, John. History of England. 
Livermore, S. T. Early History of Block Island. 
Long Island, Antiquities of. Gabriel Furman. 
Battle of. T. W. Fields. 
Histor)- of. Nathaniel Prime. 

" " Benjamin F. Thompson. 1S39. 
Notes on. Farmer. 
Plains of. \V. C. Watson. 
Towns, Settlement of. Silas Wood. 
Loyalists, The. George Ellis (in Winsor's America, vol. vii.). 
" " History of. Adolphus Edgerton Ryerson. 

" " American, Historj- of. Lorenzo Sabine. 

" " Footprints of. J. W. Lawrence. Saint John. 1883. 

Lynn, History of. Alonzo Lewis. 1840. 
MacDonald. History of the Presbyterian Church of Jamaica. 
Macfarlane, James. Geological Guide to the United States. 
McMaster, John Bach. History of the People of the United States. 
Magnolia, Christi. Cotton Mather. 
Mandeville. History of Flushing. 
Massachusetts Bay, Histor)- of. Thomas Hutchinson. 

" Colony, Historj-of. William Hubbard. London. 1677. 

Mather, Cotton. Magnalia Christi. 

W'. W. Geology of the State of New York. 
Military Journal. John Graves Simcoe. 

Mitchell, Samuel Latham. Geological View of North America. 
Moody, Deborah. James Gerard. 
Moore, Charles B. Early Hempstead. 1S70. 
" Frank. Diar}- of Revolution. 

" William H. History of Saint George's Church, Hempstead. 
Morris, Gouvemeur. Theodore Roosevelt. 

Morton, Nathaniel. New England's Memorial. London. i66g. 
Moulton, H. S. View of New Orange. London. 1673. 
Myers, Theodonis Bailey. Tories, or Loyalists, in America. 



APFRA'DIX VI. 535 

Murdoch, Beamish. History of Nova Scotia. 

ilurphy, Henry C. Xi^icw XiiUrlarUt's Antholo^e. 

Nature Displayed. Charles Varlo. 

New Albion. Beauchamp Plantagenet. 

New Amsterdam, New Orange, and New York. Cliarles W. 

Darling. 
New Amsterdam Records. 

New Brunswick, Early History of. Moses Perley. 
New England, Account of Two Voyages to. John Josselyn, Gent. 
London. 1673. 
" " Annals of. Thomas Prince. 

History of. John G. Palfrey. 
" " " John Winthrop. 

" " Historical and Genealogical Register. 

New England's Memorial. Nathaniel Morton. London. 1669. 

" " Prospect. \Villiam Wood. London. 1634. 

New Haven Colony, Records of, 163S-1665. Charles J. Hoadley. 
" " Historical Society, Collections of. Edward E. Atwater. 
New Netherland, History of. E. B. O'Callaghan. 
New Orange, View of. H. S. Moulton. London. 1673. 
Newtown, History of. James Riker. 
New York. E, H. Roberts. 
" " Theodore Roosevelt. 

" Annals of. J. F. Watson. 

" Calendar, New York Historical MSS. E. B. O'Callag- 
han. 
" " Description of. Daniel Denton. London. 1670. 
" " Documentary History of. E. B. O'Callaghan. 
" " Documents of the Colonial History of. Berthold 
Fernow. 
" Gazetteer of. J.H.French. 
" 1S02. 

" Spofford. 1S13. 
" " Genealogical and Biographical Record. 1869-95. 
" " Historical Society, Collections of. 
" History of. H. S. Moulton. 

"the Province of. William Smith. New 
York. 1756. 
" " and New Netherlands, Historj'of. J. Romeyn Brodhead. 
" " City, History of. Martha J. Lamb. 



536 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

New York City, Historj' of. David T. Valentine. 

" " Manuals of the Common Councils of. David T. 

Valentine. 
" " Memorial History of. 
" " " during the Revolution. Thomas Jones. 
" " Journals of the Council of the Colony of, 1691-1711. 
" " " " Provincial Congress of. 

Legislature of. 
" Laws of. Thomas Greenleaf. 
" Old. (Periodical.) 

" In. Thomas Allibone Jan^^e^. 
" Retrographs of. F. S. Bart ram. 
" Two Years' Journal in, 167S-S0. Charles Wolley. 
" " Visit to, 1679-S0. Bankers and Sluyter. 
Nicoll, H. Early History of Suffolk County. 
Nieuw Nederlandt. Adriaeu Van der Donck. 
Niiuw NeJerlanJt's Antholvgii. Henry C. Murphy. 
Nieuw Nederlandt, KcrU BeschricijcHng van ae Ontbidekkung. N. 
C. Lambrechtsen. Amsterdam. 1S19. 
Register, 1626-74. E. B. O'Callaghan. 
No%'a Ca<rsan\i, Historj- of Colony of. Samuel Smelt. 
Nova Scotia, The Church in. Arthur Wentworth Eaton. 
" " Collections of the Historical Society of. 
*" " History of. Beamish Murdoch. 
A'ozt's OrHs, De. Johann De Laet. 
Nox'um Belgium. Isacq Jogues. 1643. 

O'Callaghan, E. B. Calendar New York Historical MSS. ; Docu- 
mentar}- Historj- of New York ; Historj- of New Netherland ; 
New Netherland Register. 
Ogilby, John. America, being an Accurate Description thereof. 

London. 1670. 
Onderdonk, Henry. Annals of Hempstead ; Antiquities of Hemp- 
stead ; Antiquities of the Church of Jamaica : British Prisons ; 
Incidents of the Revolution ; North Hempstead and Roslj-n ; 
Suffolk County. 
Oyster Bay, Town Books of. 
Palfrey, John G. History of New England. 
Pequott Warres, The. Lion Gardiner. 1660. 
Perlej', Moses. Early Historj- of New Brunswick. . 

Plain Dealing, or Nevves from New England. London. 1641. 
Thomas Lechford. 



APPENDIX VI. 537 

Political Tracts. Peter Force. 

" " in Boston Athen;T;uni. 

Prime, Nathaniel. History of Long Island. 
Prince, Thomas. Annals of New England. 
Queen's County, Book of Enterj's of. 
Queens County, Histor)- of. 
Remembrancer, The. An Impartial Repository. London. 1767- 

17S4. 
Revolt of the United Colonies. George Chalmers. 
Riker, James. Early Histoiy of Newtown. 
Roberts, E. H. New York. 

Roosevelt, Theodore. Gouverneur Morris ; New York. 
Ryerson, Adolphus Edgerton. Histor)' of the Loyalists. 
Sabine, Lorenzo. The American Loyalists. 
Saint George's Church, History of. \V. H. Moore. 

Records of. 
Saint John, N. B., Centennial Celebration of. 1SS3. 
Salem, Annals of. Joseph B. Felt. 

Schoolcraft, Henry R. History of the Indians of North America. 
Scudder, H. Bi-Centennial Address at Glen Cove. 
Shelburne, Lord, Life of. Edmund George Petty Fitzmaurice. 
Simcoe, John Graves. Military Journal. 
Smith, Goldwin. Political History of United States. 
Smith, Captain John. Generall Historie of Virginia, New England, 

and the Summer Islands. London. 1626. 
Smith, \Villiam. History of the Province of New York. New 

York. 1756. 
Southampton, First Book of Records of. 

" History of. Thomas Strong. 

Southold, History of. Epher \Vhittaker. 
" Index of. Charles B. Moore. 
" Town Books of. 
Stamford, Bi-Centennial Address at. John W. Alvord. 

" History of. Elijah B. Huntington. 
Strong. History of Flatbush. 
Stuyvesant, Peter, Life of. Bayard Tuckerman. 
Styles, H. D. History of Brooklyn ; History of Kings County. 
Suffolk County. Henry Onderdonk. 
George R. Howell. 
Early History of. R. Bayliss. 



538 EARLY LONG ISLAND. 

Suffolk County, Early History of. H. Nicoll. 

Thompson, Benjamin (Count Rumford), Life of. George Ellis. 

Thompson, Benjamin F. History of Long Island. 1839. 

Tooker, William Wallace. Indian Names on Long Island. 

Tories, or Loyalists, in America. Theodorus Bailey Myers. 

Trumbull, Benjamin. Colonial Records of Connecticut. 

Tuckerman, Bayard. Life of Peter Stuyvesant. 

Underhill, John. Nevves from America. London. 1638. 

United Colonies, Political Annals of, to 1763. Revolt of the 

Colonies. George Chalmers. 
United Empire Loyalists' Centennial. 
United States, Excursion to. Henry Wansey, London. 1794. 

" " History of. H^nry Adams. 

" George Bancroft. 
Richard Hildreth. 
".; " " " John Bach McMaster. 

Political History of. Goldwin Smith. 
Universal Register and Kalender. British and American. 1775-84. 

Hugh Gaine, 
Valentine, David T. History of the City of New York : Manuals 

of the Common Council. 
Vanderbilt, Gertrude Lefferts. Social Life of. Flatbush. 
Van der Donck, Adriaen. Nieuw Nederlandt. 
Van Schaack, H. C. Life of Peter Van Schaack. 
Van Schaack, Peter. Life of H. C. Van Schaack. 
Varlo, Charles. Nature Displayed. 
Verrazano's Letter. B. F. De Costa. 
Voyages. Richard Hakluyt. 
Wansey, Henry. Excursion in United States. 
Watertown (Mass.), Genealogical History of. Henry Bond. 
Watson, J. F. Annals of New York. 
Watson, W. C. Plains of Long Island. 
Whittaker, Epher, History of Southold. 
Wittmeyer, Alfred V. Collections of the Huguenot Society. 
Wonder-Working Providence of Sion's Saviour. Edward Johnson, 

London. 1654. 
Wood, Silas. Settlement of Towns of Long Island. 
Wood, William. New England's Prospect. London. 1634. 



INDEX. 



Adams, John, quoted, 342 ; as 

Peace Commissioner, 456 
Adams, Samuel, 358 
Alexander, Sir William, Earl of 

Sterling, original grants to, 15, 

1 1 8-1 20 ; reiteration of claims, 

187 
Amboyiia Tragedy, The, 276 
Anabaptists at Gravesend, 112 
Andros, Edmond, appointment 

of, 315 ; journey through Long 

Island, 315 ; petition to the 

King against, 316 
Anthologie van Nieuw N'eder- 

landt, 89, 91. 
Argall, Samuel, false claims of, 

12 
Armen Bouwerie, 'T, 168 
Associations formed, 353 
Attainder and Confiscation, Acts 

of, 452, 469 
Axtel, Col. William, 100, 428 

B 

Barneveldt, prophecy of, 10 

Barrier reefs, 25 

Baxter, George, 102, 112, 275, 
278 

Bedford, settlement of, 86 

Belknap, Jeremy, correspond- 
ence of, 346 

Bellamont, Earl of, letters of the, 
326 



Bennet, Willem Adrianse, 81 

Bentyn, Jacques, 81 

Bergen, Teunis, quoted, 65, 93, 

95 

Birdsall, Freelove, 422 

Birds of Long Island, 31 

Black List," " The, 356 

Block, Adrian, voyage of, 6 ; 
winters on Manhattan, 7 ; sails 
through the Sound, 8 ; before 
the Council of the Nether- 
lands, 9 

Blockhouses, 30 

Block Island named, 3 

Bloomer, the Rev'.' Joshua, 211, 
429 

Bombay Hook, degradation of 
name, 66 

Bovvne, John, 177 

Breuckelen, 38 ; origin of name 
of, 79 ; incorporated, 82 ; first 
church in, 84 ; old records de- 
stroyed, 87 

British Army, devastations by 
the, 419, 420, 433, 434 ; re- 
moved from Long Island, 455 

Brookhaven, settlement of, 256 ; 
first Meeting-house of, 257 ; 
great estates of, 258 

Brooklyn, the Battle of, 285- 
400 ; fortifying, 385 ; Col. 
Rufus Putnam at, 386 ; Gen. 
Greene, at 388 ; Gen. Israel 
Putnam at, 388 ; forces en- 
gaged in, 389 ; British plan of 



539 



540 



INDEX. 



attack, 389 ; awaiting the, 

391 ; preliminary skirmishes, 

392 ; position of the armies, 

393 ; movement of the British, 

394 ; line of defence, 398 ; 
roll of prisoners, 399 ; the 
night after, 401 ; council of 
war, 403 ; withdrawal of 
troops, 404 ; Lieut. -Col. Kem- 
ble's accomit of, 407 ; a farce, 
410 

Brush Plains, the, 30 
Buell, the Rev^ Dr., 24S 
Bull-baiting, 334, 432 
Burger Joris, 83, 162, 171 
Burnaby, the Rev^ Andrew, 44 
Burnett, the Rev^ Matthias, 204, 

431 
Bushwick, incorporation of, loi ; 
boundary quarrel with New- 
town, loi ; hamlets included 
in, 102 



Calf-keeper, the, the cowherd, 
and the pinder, 135 

Cape Breton, celebrating the 
surrender of, 329 

Carleton, settlement of, 494 

Carleton, Sir Guy, appeal to, 
478, 483 ; removes the British 
army, 455 

Caroline Church, 258 

Caumsett, 253 

Centre Island, 125, 189 

Charles II. 's purchase of Lord 
Sterling, 281 : proclaimed on 
Long Island, 287 ; gift to the 
Duke of York, 293 ; appoints 
commissioners, 293 

Charter of Liberties, 318 

Childs, Dr. Robert, 21 

Christiaenzen, Hendrick, 6 

Chronological observations on 
America, 12 

Church, the Stone, 205 

Claesen, Hendrick, 36 

Claims, Board of, make no ad- 
justment, 421 



Clinton, George, 333 ; presents 
Fifth Article to New York 
Legislature, 466, 468 

Clinton, Sir Henry, expedition 
to Suffolk County, 439, 445 

Coal, search for, 22 

Colden, Cadwallader, as a natu- 
ralist, 185 ; Whig hatred of, 

350, 374. 379. 478 

Colgan, the Rev";' Thomas, 209 

College of the XIX. 11, petition 
to 166 

Colonisation, English and Dutch 
systems contrasted, 222 

Colve, Captain, in authority at 
New Orange, 308 

Commodities of Manati, 35 

Common, rights of, 132 

Coney Island, 27, 114 

Confession of Faith, the Hemp- 
stead, 351 

Confiscation, Act of Attainder 
and, 469 

Congress, Continental, the, 350, 

354, 363. 364. 366, 367, 373 
Congress, Provincial, the, Queens 
Co., refuses to send delegates 
to, 351 ; new, convoked, 353 ; 
Queens County put out of the 
protection of, 357-360 ; peti- 
tions to, 362-366, 373 
Connecticut annexes the English 
settlements, 169 ; renounces 
claims, 299 ; Easthampton 
wishes reunion with, 306 ; 
Loyalist prisoners sent to, 383 
Connecticut River, discovery of, 

9 
Conservatism suffers, 477 

Convention of New York, 383 

Cornbury, Lord, appropriates 
disputed ground, 102 ; at Ja- 
maica, 206 

Cortelyou, Jacques, 90, 290 

Costell, William, 39 

Counties organised, 117 

Court, the General, 167 ; of Ses- 
sions, 304 

Cow Neck, attempted settlement 
of, 121 ; secession of, 415 ; 



INDEX. 



541 



acts of exclusion and banish- 
ment by, 417 
Cromwell sends fleet to reduce 
the Manhattans, 277 ; ac- 
knowledges the Dutch rights, 
280 ; letter to L. I. from, 
279 

D 

Dairy products, 138 

Dankers and Sluyter, visit of, 43 

Daiiphine, La, voyage of, 2 

De Laet's, Johann, map of 1630, 

4 ; De Novis Orbis, 34 
DeLancey, Oliver, 430 ; brigade 
of, 430 ; third battalion of 
brigade of, 431 
De Lancey, Stephen, 430 
Denton, Daniel, description of 
New York by, 40 ; clerk of 
Hempstead, 140 ; clerk of Ja- 
maica, 198 ; founds Elizabeth- 
town, N. J., 2qo 
Denton, the Rev'? Richard, 126, 

149, 172 
Denudation, amount of, 26 
Domestic manufactures, 139 
Domines, Dutch, 84, 96, 97, 113, 

168, 171 
•Domine's, Hoeck, 'T, 168 
Dongan, Governor, 191, 317 ; 
addressed by Easthampton, 

243 
Dordrecht, Synod of, 79, 172 
Dosoris, 67 
Doughty, the Rev^ Francis, 163, 

165. 174 
Dry rivers, the, 20 
Duke of York, the, patent to the, 

293 
Duke's Laws, the, 301 
Dutch blood, influence of, 336 
Dutch churches, at Jamaica, 212 ; 
Success, Wolver Hollow, New- 
town, 213 
Dutch claims, extent of the, 9, 
77, 261 ; Parliament urged to 
decide upon, 267 ; Van Tien- 
hoven's negotiation of the, 
267 



Dutch settlements, 77 ; organisa- 
tion of the Five Towns, 78 ; 
census of, 103 

Dutchess County, migration to, 

337 

E 

Earl Palatine of North America, 
66 

Ear- marks, 137 

Easthampton, settlement of, 240 ; 
joined to Connecticut, 242 ; 
protest of, 243 ; address to 
Dongan, 243 ; exclusive spirit 
of, 244 ; ministers in, 248 ; 
schools of, 249 ; population of, 
250 ; pledges itself to Conti- 
nental cause, 369 

East Riding, the, refuses to ac- 
knowledge Colve, 308 ; expe- 
dition to reduce the, 311 

Eaton, Governor, Code of, 235 ; 
land conveyances to, 239 

Eaton's Neck, 25 

Episcopal Church, Ministry Act 
for the, 150; St. George's 
Church, 154, 156 ; Grace 
Church, 212 ; Caroline Church, 
258 

Epitaphs, curious, 214 

Excise on Long Island, 331 

Expatriation of the Loyalists, 
488-497 

F 

Farret, James, 117, 118, 120, 

123, 174, 187, 221 
Feake, Henry, 166 
Federal union originated with 

the Dutch, 78 
Fence stealing punished, 92 
Ferry, the first, on the East 

River, 82 
Figurative Map, the, 9, 32 
Fire Island, 21 
Fireplace, 61 
Firewood furnished British army, 

447 
Fisher's Island, 26, 223 ; trans- 
fers of, 234 



542 



INDEX. 



Flatbush, evolution of the name, 
94 ; church of, 95 ; Avenue, 
100 
Flatlands settled, 88 
Fleet," "The Spring, 492 
Fletcher, Governor, 325 
Flora of Long Island, 31 
Flushing, settled, 173 ; Remon- 
strance, 176 ; horticulture in, 

1S3 

Fordham's, Mr., Plains, 131 

Forest laws, 38 

Fort Franklin, 435 

Fort Neck, battle of, 49 ; sold to 
Thomas Townsend, 195 

Fortune, the, and the Tiger, 6 

Fox, George, at Gravesend, 113 ; 
at Flushing, 17S ; at Oyster 
Bay, 194 

Fox-hunting, 432 

France neglects her right, 3 

Franchise, restrictions of, 235 

Franklin, Benjamin, in the ne- 
gotiation for peace, 457, 460 

Freeman, Domine Bernardus, 97 

Free trade on Long Island, 331 

French and Indian War, interest 
in the, 327 ; levies on the 
Friends, iSi ; provincial mili- 
tia for the, 329 

Friends' Meeting established, 
159 ; yearly meeting, iSo ; 
records of men's meeting of 
Flushing, 1S5 

Fruit-culture introduced by Wal- 
loons, 183 \,^^ 

Fur-trade secured by the Dutch, 
6 

G 

Gardiner, Lion, 33 ; tomb of, 

216 ; arrival of, in Boston, 

217 ; at Say brook, 218 ; Rela- 
tion of the Pequot War res by, 

219 ; purchase of Monchonock, 

220 ; life in Easthampton, 
221 

Gate rights, 135 

Gazette, New York, quoted, 138, 
428 



Gazette, Rivington's New York, 

quoted, 432, 435 
Gerretsen's, Martin, Bay, 78 ; 

location of, 128-130 
Gildersleeve, Richard, 131, 149, 

165, 175 
Glacial deposits, 16, 21 
Gomez, Estevan, voyage of, 7 
Gordon, the Revd Tatrick, 5 
Governor's Island, 66 
Gowanus, uncertain et\nnology 

of, 65 
Grace Church, Jamaica, 2I2 
Grain, exportation of, 139, 328 
Gravesend, naming of, loS ; pat- 
ent of, 109 ; Indian attack 
upon, 1 10 : theological bias in, 
112; dispute with Stu}-\-esant, 
112 ; English invasion of, 113 ; 
raises the English flag, 278 
Great South Beach, 26 
Greene, Gen. Nathaniel, at 

Brooklyn, 388 
Ground-nuts, importance of, 63 

H 

Hallett's Cove, 18 

Halve Maen, ' T, enters Lower 
Bay, 4 ; winters at Dartmouth, 
5 ; sent to the River of Moun- 
tains, 6 

Harbour Hill, 28 

Hartford, the. Treaty, 269, 270 ; 
English towns appeal to, 2S3 

Hastings, Declaration of, 169 

Heard, Col., on Long Island, 

363, 367 

Hedges in Suffolk County, 28 

Heemstede, 30, 38 

Helle-gat named, 8 ; dangers 
of, 8 

Hempstead, first settlement in 
bounds of, 117 ; name of, 12S ; 
patent to Stamford men, 131 ; 
division of land, 131 ; Town 
Books of, 140 ; first Meeting- 
house, 148 ; independent min- 
isters, 149 ; village graveyard, 
150 ; social conditions in, 159 ; 
division of the town, 160 ; ap- 



INDEX. 



543 



peal to Amsterdam, 272 ; 
Meeting, the, 2S9 ; Conven- 
tion, the, 300 ; Resohitions of, 
311 ; suffering from military 
occupation, 432 

Hempstead Harbour, 12S, 130 

Hempstead Plains, 19 

Heretics prosecuted, 236 

Hessian fly, the, 185 

Hewlett, Richard, 327, 374, 378, 

431, 438 

Hickey Plot, the, 377 

Hicks, Elias, 196 

Hicks, Whitehead, 380 ; arrange- 
ment of, 449 

Highway, the King's, 87 ; lay- 
ing out of, 146 

Hollows, the, 135 

Horse-racing, 234, 432 

Howe, Daniel, 120, 122, 124 

Howe, Lord Richard, Declara- 
tion of, 390 ; neglect of oppor- 
tunity by, 402 

Howe, Gen. William, Proclama- 
tion of, 391 : inaction of, 400 ; 
judgments on, 411, 412, 414 

Howe's Bay, 121 

Hubbard, fames, 104, 112, 278 

Hubbard, the Revd John, 204 

Hudson, Hendrick, voyage of, 

4 ; estimate of the country by, 

5 ; detention in England, 5 
Hudson River, names of the, 6 
Humming birds, speculations on, 

39 . 

Huntington, purchased by Eaton, 
251 ; settlement of, 251 ; an- 
nexed to New Haven, 252 ; 
the Town-Spot, 253 ; right in 
drift-whales, 253 ; ministers 
of, 254 ; Town Books of, 254 ; 
origin of names, 254 ; suffers 
in the Revolution, 436 

Huntting, the Revd Nathaniel, 
248 

Huys van Hoop seized, 271 

I 

Independence not an original 
object of the Revolution, 342 



Independents, settle Jamaica, 
201 ; claim to precedence, 202 ; 
meeting-house built, 203 

Indians, the, character of, 46, 
55 ; distribution of, 48-50 ; 
fortifications by, 49 ; dealings 
with the, 51-53 ; extermination 
planned, 55 ; conference at 
Rockaway, 165 ; final condi- 
tion of, 335 

Inn, license for keeping an, 146 

Isle Plowden, 15 

Islip established, 223 



Jamaica, founding of, 197 ; as 
shire-town, 199; early ministers 
in, 204 ; quarrel over church 
property, 206 ; Town Burying- 
ground, 213 ; Resolutions of, 
347 ; the Election at, 355 ; 
occupied by British troops, 431 

James, the Revd Thomas, 248 

Jay, John, 342/358, 453 

Jealousy between New England 
and New York, 299 

Jenney, the Revd Robert, 154 

Jericho, settlement of, 196 

Jericho Turnpike, 87 

Jones, Major Thomas, 195 ; 
quoted, 364, 368, 414, 420, 
423, 431, 435, 440, 441, 445, 
449 ; arrest of, 383 ; third im- 
prisonment of, 442 ; attainder 
of, 449 

Josselyn, John, Gentleman, ob- 
servations on America, 12, 42 

Juett, Robert, Log-book of, 4 



K 



Kalm, Peter, quoted, 20 
Keith, the Revd George, 151 
Kemble, Lieut. -Col., account of 

Battle of Brooklyn by, 410 
Kenniss, a yearly, 84 
Kidd, gold buried by, 26 
Kidd's Rock, 21 
Kieft, Willem, surveys of, 34 ; 



544 



INDEX. 



relations with the Indians, 53 ; 
land purchased by, 77, 89, 
104, 116 ; Patent to, 130 

Kings County, Dutch influence 
in, 77 ; first Court-house, 99 ; 
census of, 103 ; New York 
Convention against, 383 ; ad- 
dresses Lord Howe, 424 ; tes- 
tifies allegiance, 425 

Kingston, Canada, settled by 
Loyalists, 492 

Kissam, Benjamin, intercedes 
with Provincial Congress, 382 



Labadists, the, 43, 90 

Landt-tags at Nieuw Amster- 
dam, 272, 273, 284, 290 

Lecky, W. E. H., quoted, 343 

Lee, Gen. Charles, character, 
361 ; letters quoted, 361, 372, 

373. 376 
Legislature, first Colonial, of 

New York, 318 
Legislature of New York against 

the Loyalists, 452, 469 
Leisler, Jacob, government of, 

323, 324 

Lenni Lenapi, the, 45 

Liberty, religious, on Long Isl- 
and, 336 

Linne men, the, 117 

Lloyd's Neck, 25, 191, 253 ; 
Fort Franklin, 435 ; occupied 
by Associated Loyalists, 435 

Long Island, first mention of, 
I ; proved an island, 9 ; grant 
to Plowden, 15 ; advertised 
for sale, 17; geological forma- 
tion of, 18-23 ; coast line of, 
25 ; necks of, 27 ; forest roads 
of, 29 ; many names of, 72 ; 
impetus to settlement of, 79 ; 
granted to Gorges, 170 : Eng- 
lish claims to, 221 ; English 
intrusion on, 262 ; effect of 
English polity on, 263 ; dis- 
content of the inhabitants, 
272 ; mortgaged by Farret, 



281 ; annexed to Connecticut, 

282 ; reconquered by the 
Dutch, 308 ; part in the French 
and Indian Wars, 327 ; the 
granary of the Colonies, 328 ; 
distribution of population, 
329 ; social condition of, 333 ; 
the mother-hive, 336 ; slavery 
on, 337 ; suffering on, during 
the Revolution, 339 ; opposed 
sentiment of the East and the 
West, 370 ; in possession of 
the British, 413 ; devastation 
by the British army, 419-434 ; 
the army removed from, 455 ; 
expatriation of citizens, 488- 

497 
Long Island Sound, first passage 
through, 8 ; Dermer's voyage 
through, 8; depth of, 18; 
names of, 72 
Lottery scheme for a church, 85 
Loyalists, the, conscientious 
scruples of, 246 ; misrepre- 
sentation of, 347 ; disarming 
of. 354. 363 ; persecution of, 
374 ; imprisoned in Connecti- 
cut, 3S3 ; after the war, 473- 
487 ; two classes of, 475 ; 
regiments of, 477 ; Board of 
Associated, 478 ; appeal to 
Carleton, 478 ; slighted in Lon- 
don, 486 ; sentiment toward, 
in the United States, 487 ; re- 
moved to Nova Scotia, 488 ; 
provision made by England, 
489 ; number of, 489 ; the 
United Empire of, 492 
Ludlow, Gabriel, 439, 495 
Ludlow, George Duncan, 440, 
449 

M 

Madison, James, quoted, 342 
Maltese cats, introduction of, 

237 
Manetta Hill, legend of, 23 
Manhattan, etymology of, 47 
Manisees, discovery of, 3 



INDEX. 



545 



Maps , early : Maijolla, 3 ; Ri- 
biera, 3 ; De Laet, 3 ; Hiero- 
nimo da Verrazano, 3, 33 ; 
Figurative Map, 9, 32 ; Cliam- 
plain, 32 ; Jacobsen, 32 ; 
Chauves, 33 ; Vander Donck, 
33 ; Capt. John Smitli's esti- 
mate of, 33 
Market Slip, the landing at, 493 
Martial law on Long Island, 

450 
Massepequa Swamp, refuge of 

the Loyalists, 375 
Matouwacks, 32, 35, 46 
Megapolensis, Domine, 96, 113 
Mennonists, The, 112, 172 
Mespat, 38 ; Indian massacre at, 
54, 164 ; English settlement 
of, 163 
Mespat Kills, 162 
Methodism, early, 158, 173 
Mey, Cornelis Jacobsen, 7, 8, 

80 
Middelburgh named, 166, 169 
Midwout, planting of, 95 ; first 

church of, 95 
Migration, spirit of, 266 ; to 
New Jersey, 289 ; to Dutchess 
County, 337 
Militia of the Eastern Towns 

organised, 371 
Millstone Rock, 21 
Minuit, Peter, 17 
Mitchell, Samuel Latham, 67 
Montanus, Arnoldes, quoted, 41 
Montauk, etymology of. 49 
Montauk Indians, 47 ; petition 

of. 56 
Montauk Point, 26, 73 
Moody, Deborah, Lady, Patent 
to, 104-105 ; banished from 
Salem, 106 ; library of, 107 ; 
political influence of, in ; 
death of, 112 
Moore, the Rev'? John, 134, 

139. 171 
Morris, Gouverneur, on Queens 

County, 382 
Mount Misery, 68 
Mulford, Samuel, 246-248 



Muscheda Cove, record, 62 ; 
settlement at, 194 

N 

Names, autochthonic, 61 ; sig- 
nificance of, 61 ; Indian, 63 ; 
Dutch, 66 ; change of, 69-75. 

Narragansett Bay, 3 ; visited by 
Block, 9 

Narrows, The, Verrazano ap- 
proaches, 2 ; Hudson enters, 
4 ; purchase of land at, 90 

Nassau named, 326 

Navigation Act, the, 281 

Neapogue Beach, 26 

Netherlands, status of the, 264 

New Albion, 14 

New Brunswick, Province of, 
organised, 495 

New England arms against New 
Netherland, 276 

New Lots, 66 

Newmarket race course, 19, 139 

New Orange, 308 

Newspaper, the first, 273 

Newtown, settlement of, 166 ; 
Indian Rate of, 167 ; patent 
given, 171 ; Resolutions of, 

347 

Newtown pippin, the, 44, 171 

New York, anomalous govern- 
ment of, 298 ; becomes New 
Orange, 308 ; first assembly 
of, 318 ; Provincial Congress 
of, 352-360, 363-366, 373, 380. 
383 ; Convention of, 383 ; 
Legislature of, 452, 469 

Nicholson, Francis, 321 

NicoU family, the, 259 

Nicoll, Col. Richard, 19, 113 ; 
fleet of, 294 ; landing at 
Gravesend, 295 ; as Governor 
of New York, 299-305 

Nieuw Amersfoordt, settlement 
of, 88 ; struggle of the name, 
88 ; fertility of, 89 ; first 
church of, 89 

Nieuw Amstei'dam contempo- 



546 



INDEX. 



raneous with Long Island set- 
tlement, 17 

Nieuw Nederlandt named, 10 ; 
armorial bearings of, 11 ; 
made a province, 13 ; surveys 
by Kieft, 34 ; the pearl of, 
90 ; English encroachments 
on, 280 ; given up, 295 ; Eng- 
lish responsibility for the seiz- 
ure, 296 

Nieuw Utrecht, founding of, 91 ; 
incorporation of 93 ; records 
of, 93 ; first church of, 94 ; 
invasion of, by Scott, 94 

Norman's Kill, the loi 

North Sea, settlement at, 224 

North Side, the, 19 

Nova Scotia, destination of the 
Loyalists, 488 

Nyack Bay, 90 



O 



Oakley's High Hill-field, 28 

Occum, Sampson, 57 

Ogilby, John, voyage of, 12 

Onderdonk, Henry, 140 

Onderdonk, Peter, Note-book 
of, 421 

Onrust, ' T, building of, 7 ; voy- 
age of , 7 

Oranjen Boven, ' T, i"] 

Orient Point, 27 

Oswald, Richard, 457 

Otis, James, quoted, 342 

Oyster Bay, Van Tienhoven's 
description of, 186 ; land 
purchase by Farret, 187 ; dis- 
puted location of, 188 ; Eng- 
lish settlement of , 189 ; bound- 
ary disputes in, 190 ; Town 
Meeting of, 351 

Oysters, 38, 43, 186 



Pacific Ocean, passage to, 2, 4 
Paine, Thomas, quoted, 341, 

346 
Palatinate of New Albion, 14 



Parrtown settled, 494 

Patents, renewal of, required, 
321 

Paumanacke, etymology of, 46 

Payne, John Howard, birthplace 
of, 249 

Peace, negotiations for, 456- 
472 ; commissioners for, 456, 
457 ; American conditions of 
a, 457 ; final compromise, 461 

Pennawitz, 55, 121, 134 

Pequots, character of, 47 ; vas- 
salage to, 47 ; tribute paid to, 
48 ; Relation of the, War, 219 

Peters, James, 488 

Peters, Valentine Hewlett, 160, 

351 

Pharaohs, last of the, 58 

Pierson, the Rev^ Abraham, 
225, 229 

Pilgrims, proposition to the, 76 

Piracy, 271 ; authorised, 332 

Plain Edge, the, 19 

Plantagenet, Beauchamp, 13 

Plowden, Sir Edmund, 13, 14 

Plum Island, 26, 223 

Polhemus, Domine, 96 

Polity, effect of English, 263 

Port Roseway, first destination 
of the Loyalists, 488 , re- 
named, Shelburne, 490 

Post route established, 385 ; fur- 
ther facilities desired, 331 

Potter's clay, 22 

Poyer, the Rev^ Thomas, 207 ; 
sermons and register of, 209 

Presbyterian preachers arrested, 
172 

Presbyterians first in Hempstead, 
149, 202 

Prime, the Rev? Ebenezer, 436 

Prince's Nurseries, 184 

Prohibition law, an early, 52 

Prohibitory Act, the, 444 

Putnam, Israel, 388 

Putnam, Rufus, 386 



Quakers welcomed at Gravesend, 
113 ; expelled from Hemp- 



INDEX. 



547 



stead, 145 ; persecuted in 
Flushing, 176 ; informed 
against and "wearied out," 
266 
Queen Anne, gifts of, 155, 205 
Queens County, named, 116 ; 
settlement of, 117, 123 ; new 
Court-house, 161 ; " Booke of 
Enterys " for, 200 ; suffering 
in, during the Revolution, 
339 ; Tories of, 356 ; Heard's 
raid in, 364 ; suspected per- 
sons in, 379 ; action of Com- 
mittee of, 381 ; addresses 
Gov. Tryon, 423 ; addresses 
Gen. Robertson, 451 
Queen's Rangers, the, 442, 444, 

445 _ 

Queen's Village, the Manor of, 
191 

Quit-rents, 77 ; evasion of pay- 
ment of, 147 



R 



Rapalje, Joris de, 81 ; Sarah de, 
82 

Refugees address New York 
Committee of Safety, 441 

Refugees' House, 433 

Rippowam settled from Wethers- 
field, 125 

Rockaway, Indian treaty made 
at, 155, 165 

Rockaway Inlet, 4 

Ronkonkoma, Lake, 24 

Rubell, Johannes Casperus, 97 

Rycken, Abraham, receives first 
recorded deed, 82 



Sabbath, contempt of the, 142 

Sagabonack, 63 

Sag Harbour, 63 ; attacked by 
Meigs, 439 

Saint George's Church, consecra- 
tion of, 154 ; charter of, 156 

Saint John, harbour of, 493 ; a 
distributing point, 493 



Saint John River, a highway, 

495 

Salisbury Plains, 139 

Salt Meadow, 24 

Saltonstall, Sir Richard, 124 

Salt works on Coney Island, 114 

Sands, Capt. John, 69 

Sandy Hook, Verrazano passes, 2 

Schools, early : Brooklyn, 86 ; 
Flatbush, 98 ; Hempstead, 
147 ; Southampton, 230; East- 
hampton, 249 ; Huntington, 

253 
Schoonwalle, Sieur de, 4 
Scott, Capt. John, invades Neuw 

Utrecht, 94 ; invited to Long 

Island, 280 ; agreement with 

Stuyvesant, 286 
Seabury, the Rev'? Samuel, Jun., 

157 ; consecrated Bishop, 157; 

at Jamaica, 211, 488 
Seaman, Capt. John, 146 
Searington Church, 158 
Sears, Isaac, 357 ; test oath of, 

374 

Seawanhacky, 46 
Selwyns, Domine Hendricus, 84 
Setauket besieged by Parsons, 438 
Setauket South, 61 
Sheep-parting, The, 138 
Shelburne, Lord, true to the 

Loyalists, 457-460; excuses the 

Treaty of Peace, 465 
Shelburne settled, 490 ; aban- 

boned, 491 
Shingled houses, 29 
Shinnecock Hills, 27 
Shinnecock Reservation, 58 
Sille, Nicasius de, 91, 168 
Silliman, General, e-xchange of, 

443 
Simcoe, John Graves, Militaiy 

Journal of, 442-446 
Simsbuiy dungeons, the, 369 
Sinks, 33 
hmallwood. Colonel, Maryland 

regiment of, 397 
Smith, Goldwin, quoted, 495 
Smith, Captain John, quoted, 33, 

76, 337 



548 



INDEX. 



Smith, John, of Mespat, 163, 165 

Smith, John, Rock, 143 

Smith, Richard, the Bull-rider, 
61, 261 

Smith, Richard of Taunton, 164 

Smith, Tangiers-, 259 

Smuggling, 196 

Southampton, planting of, 122, 
224 ; laws of, 226 ; entries in 
Town Books of, 227 ; appeals 
to Connecticut, 229 ; first 
Meeting-house, 229; " valu- 
acon" of, 230 ; remonstrance, 
the, 305 

South Haven, 61 

South Hold, the, 234 

Southold, Meeting-house, 234 ; 
attachment to Connecticut, 237 

South Side, the, 19 

Speech, regulation of, 236 

Springs, abundance of, 23 

Stamford, settlement of, 125 ; 
records of, 126 ; migration 
from, 127 

Steendam, Jacob, 89 

Steenwyck, Cornells van, defied 
at Southold, 311 

Stepping Stones, legend of the, 
21 

Sterling, Earl of, 15 ; grant of 
Nova Scotia to, 118-120 

Sterling, William Alexander, 
Lord, 376 ; appointment as 
General, 376 ; at Battle of 
Brooklyn, 396 ; captured, 399 

Strachey's efforts for the Loyal- 
ists, 460 

Strickland Plain, battle of, 134 

Stuyvesant, Pieter, relations with 
Indians, of, 55 ; lays out Bush- 
wick, loi ; last letters to The 
Hague, 291 ; to the West India 
Company, 297 ; character, 297; 
tomb of, 298 

Success Pond, 63 

Suffolk County, manorial grants 
of, 223; first Court-house, 238 ; 
population of, 239 ; suffering 
of, during the Revolution, 
346, 446 



Surinam in exchange for Nieuw 

Nederlandt, 314 
Sylvester, Grizzel, legacy to, 191 



Tallmadge, Colonel Benjamin, 
raid of, 439 

Taxation without representation, 
resisted by Easthampton, 244 

Thomas, the Rev'? John, induc- 
tion of, 151 ; letters of, 153 

Thompson, Colonel Benjamin, 
Count Rumford, 437, 488 

Thorwold, voyage of, i 

Tories, denunciation of, 357 ; in 
Massepequa Swamp, 376 ; 
General Greene's list of, 384 

Tory, application of the name of, 
344 ; Act, 358 

Town Books of Hempstead, 140 

Towns, the English, jealousies 
of the, 264 

Towns, the Five Dutch, organisa- 
tion of, 78 ; census of the, 103 

Treaty, the Definitive, 462 ; 
Articles IV., V., VI., 462 ; 
Article V. condemned by Par- 
liament, 462 ; presented to 
New York Legislature, 466 

Treaty of Westminster, 248, 314 

Treaty of Westphalia, 279 

Trees, notable, 29, 100 

Trespass Act, the, 468 

Tryon, Governor, letters to 
Lord Germaine, 426-429 

Tuckerstown, 78 



U 



Underbill, John, quoted, 37 ; 
defeats the Massepequas, 49 ; 
defeats the Canarsies, 55 ; in 
Flushing, 174; buys Martine- 
cock, 191 ; career in Boston, 
193 ; Governor of Exeter and 
Dover, 193 ; High Sheriff of 
.the North Riding, 193 ; excites 
revolt at Hempstead, 271 



INDEX. 



549 



United Netherlands, indepen- 
dence of, acknowledged, 4 

United Netherlands Company, 
charter of the, 10 

Urquehart, the Rev^ William, 
206 

Usselincx, Willem, 11 



Van Corlear, Jacobus, 8r 
Van Dam, Rip, rents ferry, 83 
Van der Donck, Adriaen, 38 
Van der Hyl, Jan, 55, 193 
Van Eckelen, Johannes, 98 
Van Schaack, Peter, 412 
Van Tienhoven, Cornells, 26, 38, 

12S, 271 
Van Twiiler, Wouter, as agricul- 
turist, 89 
Varlo, the Rev^ Charles, claims 

of the, 16 
Verrazano, letter of, i, 114 
Verse-makers of Nieuw Neder- 

landt, 89, 91 
Vine-culture, monopoly of, 144 
Vlackte-Bosch, 94 
Vlissingen, 38 

W 

Wainscott, 62 

Wallabout, origin of name, 65 ; 

grant of, 81 
Walloon descent, 66 
Walloons, settlement by the, 80 
Wampum, 46, 50, 51 



Watering-places, public, pro- 
tected, 146 

West India Company, privileges 
of, 10 ; organisation of, 11 ; 
monopoly ended, 77 ; protec- 
tion of the Walloons by, 80 ; 
tolerant spirit of the, 178, 265 ; 
responsibility of, 288 

West Riding, the, protests of, 

305 
Whaleboaters, 322, 440 
Whale fishery, 331-333 
Wight, Isle of, 220, 223 
Willet, Colonel Marinus, 357 
Williams, Roger, 54 
Wilmot, Freelove Townsend, 

204 
Winthrop, Jun., John, visits 

Hempstead, 292 ; writes to 

New Orange, 313 
Witchcraft, trial for, 256 
Wolley, the Rev'.' Charles, 8, 82 
Wolverhampton Hollow, 67 
Wolves, bounty on, 141 
Wood, William, quoted, 39, 50 
Woodhull, General Nathaniel, 

327 ; capture and death of, 

405 
Woodyards established, 448 
Wyandanch, 53, 56, 219 



Yennicock, purchase of, 234 
Yorkshire, officers of, 303 ; di- 
vided into counties, 320 
Youngs, the Rev'? John, 234 
Ziekentrooster, 'Z', 85 




^* 















.Hc.^ 



^^--^ 



•^ 






.^^^^ 



V.^'^" - 



^"•^^^ '.' 













* "^ .^^ ^(<OfA"o ^ ^^^ *:^ 



■4 o^ 



»* ^b- O 'J*'^<^^^- '^ R^^'='*.''^«* "Sing the Bookkeeper pro( 






^* x^ '^ ". I FHhSERVATION TECHNOLOGIES" 

<Jv Xv .. 11 1 Thomson Park Drive 

Cranberrv Townshin pa icnce 



1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township pa i 






.*^ 



O' 







.«^^r 






* ^'''' "^^^^ 



i 



^<p 






HO*. 



C" .v., .7.. 



^"'-. '*1:>. 



..-f 



.^' 



\. 



^° ^'V 



^r 










-^^^ 






,; * 



..0^ 



^, 






'^. 



^^. 



J' 



,^ 




o * o 



Ik" Ta 

•^ 
■a? «<» 



* o 



^°--,^. 



MAR 7 8 "^^ ^ 









% 






"^-^ A^ * 






,5 <> • ^f 



o V 

.0 -7* 



.-^' 



^ « ft . i> 






^ r.^^ 



